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NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory
NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will study Earth’s exosphere, the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere, and the portion of the atmosphere that emits ultraviolet light, using two far-ultraviolet cameras.
The spacecraft has been positioned at the gravitationally-stable Lagrange Point 1, about 932,000 miles (1.5 million km) from Earth in the direction of the Sun, after its launch on September 24th. Its instruments are designed to observe the exosphere’s response to space weather, for example, how geomagnetic storms from solar eruptions develop, propagate and dissipate, as well as play a role in the loss of our atmosphere to the vacuum of space.
The diminutive spacecraft, weighing only 531 pounds (240 km) will use NASA’s Deep Space Network to send data back to Earth twice a week over its two year prime mission (the spacecraft carries enough fuel to operate for 10 years or longer).
The mission was named in honor of Dr. George Carruthers. Dr. Carruthers, a pioneer in ultraviolet instrumentation, designed and built the compact ultraviolet camera/spectrograph carried to the Moon by the Apollo 16 astronauts. It provided scientists the first view of Earth’s geocorona.
Dr. Carruthers (on the right), with the gold-plated ultraviolet camera/ spectrograph developed for the Apollo 16 mission in 1972
Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
This colorized image of Earth taken from the surface of the Moon by the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph designed and built by Dr. Carruthers
Credit: G. Carruthers (NRL) et al./Far UV Camera/NASA/ Apollo 16
A BAE Systems technician inspects the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory satellite after the integration of the ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer onto the satellite bus.
Credit: NASA/BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems