NASA launches MinXSS CubeSat to study solar flares

NASA has launched the Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer 3 (MinXSS-3) into space to study X-rays coming from flares on the Sun. It was launched on the Indian Space Research Organization's Polar Space Launch Vehicle C on Monday, February 14th and will spend up to a year in low-Earth orbit.

MinXSS-3, aka the Dual Aperture X-ray Solar Spectrometer (DAXSS), is the third of three NASA-funded MinXSS CubeSats aimed at observing soft X-rays from the sun that are particularly impactful on Earth's ionosphere and can hamper GPS, radio, and other communications signals.

MinXSS-1 and MinXSS-2 were launched on 6 December 2015 and 4 December 2018, respectively.

"Prior to the MinXSS CubeSats, spectral measurements of the soft X-rays from the Sun had rarely been studied. MinXSS-3's observations, which can record even very weak solar flares, will help scientists better understand the physics behind solar flares as well as how such events heat up material in the Sun's hot outer atmosphere called the corona – a longstanding question for solar scientists," NASA said in a statement on Monday.

NASA's MinXSS CubeSat has launched! 🚀 Yesterday evening, the tiny, cube-shaped satellite hitched a ride into space where it will study x-rays from solar flares.More: https://t.co/usDAQG2Z7B pic.twitter.com/JXIan35nnT

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) February 15, 2022

For the unversed, ​CubeSats are small cube-shaped satellites designed to take narrowly targeted scientific observations, with only a few instruments, often built from off-the-shelf components. More information about CubeSats can be found here.