NASA’s Carruthers Observatory Begins Mission to Study Earth’s Hydrogen Halo
Mar 3, 2026 - 17:00
NASA’s Carruthers Observatory has begun its two-year science mission to study Earth’s hydrogen-rich exosphere from a halo orbit at Sun–Earth L1. Equipped with ultraviolet cameras, the small satellite will continuously image the faint geocorona, tracking how solar storms and fast solar wind streams cause the upper atmosphere to expand, contract, and gradually lose hydrogen into space over time.