LEXI will watch Earth’s magnetosphere 'breathing' from the moon

The mysteries beyond our earthly world have always captivated and fascinated us, particularly those of the moon. Outer space, the moon, planets, and stars have ignited our curiosity and filled us with wonder for centuries.

Our quest to understand our cosmic environment has evolved to include studying the invisible forces that shield our planet. One such force is the magnetic field that protects Earth from incident solar radiation.

LEXI and the Artemis era

With NASA’s Artemis program, a new chapter in space exploration is about to begin.

Setting foot in this new era is LEXI (Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager), an instrument delivered as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to the moon.

LEXI will capture the first global images of Earth’s magnetic field.

The journey kickstarts at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Lander hosting LEXI.

Lunar landing with an earthly objective

Upon successful landing, LEXI will jolt into action, focusing its gaze back towards Earth.

During an intense, six-day session, this innovative device will record images of X-rays originating from the boundaries of our planet’s extensive magnetosphere.

This visualization will provide insights into how the magnetosphere responds to space weather and cosmic forces.

The images will also reveal the susceptibility of our planet’s magnetic shield to streams of charged solar particles that can create auroras and potentially damage our infrastructure.

“We’re trying to get this big picture of Earth’s space environment. A lot of physics can be esoteric or difficult to follow without years of specific training, but this will be science that you can see,” explained Brian Walsh, a space physicist at Boston University and the principal investigator of LEXI.

LEXI’s view of the magnetosphere

Streams of particles from the Sun known as solar winds create low-energy X-rays when they collide with Earth’s magnetic field – a force field known as the magnetosphere.

Previously, these X-rays were only detectable through a patchwork of observations from various satellites and instruments.

But LEXI, stationed on the Moon, will have an unobstructed view of the entire magnetopause, which is the outer edge of Earth’s magnetic field.

Here on Earth, the team will track how the magnetosphere expands, contracts, and changes its shape in response to the solar wind’s strength.

“We expect to see the magnetosphere breathing out and breathing in for the first time,” noted Hyunju Connor, an astrophysicist and the NASA lead scientist for LEXI.

“When the solar wind is very strong, the magnetosphere will shrink and push backward toward Earth, and then expand when the solar wind weakens.”

A journey years in the making

LEXI’s journey began a decade ago, with a Goddard-based team testing the technology needed to detect low-energy X-rays across a broad field of view.

The instrument was then known as STORM. It was launched into space on a sounding rocket in 2012, and collected images before returning to Earth.

The imager was displayed at Goddard, and sat there until a call for CLPS projects came. Walsh saw an opportunity for the instrument to contribute from the lunar surface.

“We’d break the glass – not literally – but remove it, restore it, and refurbish it, and that would allow us to look back and get this global picture that we’ve never had before,” Walsh explained.

With some minor refurbishments, STORM was reinvented as LEXI and is now prepared to revisit space.

“There’s a lot of really rich science we can get from this,” said Walsh.

Uncovering mysteries of the universe

NASA’s CLPS model permits commercial delivery services to the moon, thus promoting the growth of the industry while supporting long-term lunar exploration.

As a primary customer for CLPS deliveries, NASA seeks to share flights with other future customers.

NASA Goddard is a principal science collaborator on LEXI, while NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the development of seven of the 10 CLPS payloads on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, including LEXI.

Our fascination with the cosmos will continue to drive us to uncover the mysteries of the universe.

And with endeavors like NASA’s Artemis campaign and instruments like LEXI, we inch closer to understanding the nature of the forces that protect us every day.

Information for this article was provided by a NASA press release.

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