SCIENCE

NASA to soon bring back a dead satellite

By Sanjana Shankar

1

Satellite re-entry

NASA's defunct satellite, RHESSI (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager), will re-enter Earth's atmosphere on April 20 at around 7:00am IST, plus or minus 16 hours.

2

RHESSI re-entry risk

NASA says the majority of the RHESSI spacecraft will burn up upon re-entry through the atmosphere, with a low risk of harm to anyone on Earth.

3

Observing solar activity

The RHESSI mission observed solar flares and coronal mass ejections on the Sun. These events can release energy equivalent to billions of megatons of TNT.

4

Investigations

The mission carried out investigations using a single piece of science equipment, an imaging spectrometer, to record X-rays and gamma rays emitted by the Sun.

5

X-ray solar flares studied

The RHESSI mission recorded over 100,000 X-ray events, aiding scientists in studying energetic particles in solar flares.

6

Mission termination

RHESSI also found that terrestrial gamma-ray flashes occur more frequently than previously thought. The mission ended in 2018 due to communication issues.

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