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Helio and You: April 2026

An image shows a circular view of the sky, colored gold, around the Sun. A black circular disk blocks the Sun at the center, but a small yellow circle shows the size and location of the Sun within the black disk. Near the top, a bulb-shaped cloud, a coronal mass ejection, extends upward from the Sun.
The Narrow Field Imager (NFI) camera, mounted on one of the four spacecraft of NASA’s PUNCH mission, imaged a large coronal mass ejection (CME) in exquisite detail on June 3, 2025. The CME can be seen rising in the center of the image, above the blocked-out Sun. This preliminary image includes artifacts of early processing but reveals NFI’s ability to image the Sun’s outer corona in great detail, in conjunction with the rest of PUNCH.
Levels
  • Intermediate (6-8)
  • Advanced (9-12+)
Material Type
  • Article/Informative Text
Heliophysics Big Ideas
  • Big Idea 1.1 – The Sun is really big…
  • Big Idea 1.2 – The Sun is active…
  • Big Idea 2.2 – The Sun defines the space…
NGSS
  • ESS1 - Earth's Place in the Universe
  • PS1 - Matter and its Interactions
  • PS3 - Energy
Heliophysics Topics
  • Corona
  • Coronal Mass Ejection
  • Energy
  • Heliosphere
  • Solar Wind
  • Solar Flare
  • Space Weather
Heliophysics Missions
  • PUNCH
  • STEREO A & B
  • Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
Material Cost per Learner Free
Language English

The Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission is designed to gain new insights into how the Sun's atmosphere, or corona, becomes the solar wind, how the solar wind develops as it traverses the inner heliosphere, and what impacts this evolving space weather has on the rest of the solar system. This article explains the PUNCH mission and is connected to resources that help educators explain concepts in simple, engaging ways for K-12 students.

Find the article here ↗