NASA's LEXI mission to unveil x-ray view of Earth's magnetosphere
NASA is preparing to launch the LEXI (Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager) mission, which will break new ground in studying Earth's magnetosphere by providing its first detailed X-ray images, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports, citing NASA.

As part of the Artemis program, this mission will offer a unique perspective on the interactions between Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind.
LEXI is one of 10 payloads included in NASA’s upcoming CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) mission. Scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-January from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the mission will use Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Lander to deliver the payloads to the Moon.
The magnetosphere, Earth's protective magnetic bubble, plays a critical role in shielding the planet from harmful solar radiation. It also regulates space weather, which can disrupt satellite operations and power systems. However, many processes within the magnetosphere remain poorly understood due to limitations in current observation technologies.
LEXI will detect low-energy X-rays produced when the solar wind, a stream of particles from the Sun, collides with Earth's magnetic field. This interaction occurs at the boundary of the magnetosphere, known as the magnetopause. While researchers have recently identified these X-rays through fragmented observations from various satellites and instruments, LEXI’s position on the Moon will provide a complete view of the entire magnetopause.
“We expect to see the magnetosphere breathing out and breathing in, for the first time. When the solar wind is very strong, the magnetosphere will shrink and push backward toward Earth, and then expand when the solar wind weakens,” says Hyunju Connor, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the NASA lead for LEXI.
The CLPS delivery won't mark LEXI's first journey to space. A team at Goddard, including Walsh, originally developed the instrument (then named STORM) to test technology for detecting low-energy X-rays across a wide field of view. In 2012, STORM launched aboard a sounding rocket, captured X-ray images in space, and subsequently returned to Earth.
Earlier it was reported that NASA’s Parker Solar Probe survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24 last year.