Why Scientists Study Space Weather: The Science Objectives of NASA’s Carruthers Mission

What is space weather and why does it matter for Earth, the Moon, Mars, and future human exploration? This video explores the science objectives of NASA’s Carruthers Mission and how it will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun–Earth connection. Learn how solar flares and massive coronal mass ejections (CMEs) release billions of tons of material that can race toward Earth, disturb the magnetosphere, disrupt GPS and satellite systems, and impact spacecraft and astronauts across the solar system.

The video explains the role of Earth’s outermost atmospheric layer—the exosphere—and how it interacts with solar storms through charge exchange processes that transfer energy between the magnetosphere and neutral hydrogen. Discover how these interactions affect ion energies, magnetic field configurations, and atmospheric escape, and why the exosphere is critical to understanding how Earth sheds excess energy during extreme space weather events.

For the first time, the Carruthers Mission will provide continuous, wide-field ultraviolet imaging of the exosphere, creating time-lapse “movies” of how this layer responds to solar activity, seasonal changes, and quiet-Sun conditions. These observations will greatly improve space weather science, heliophysics models, and our ability to protect satellites, GPS, power grids, and future human missions to the Moon and Mars.