NASA Mission to Study Giant ‘Halo’ Surrounding Earth

Released Thursday, September 18, 2025

ID: 14887

- Produced by:
- Beth Anthony

In 1972, Apollo 16 astronauts placed an ultraviolet camera on the Moon that captured the first images of Earth’s geocorona, the light emitted by Earth’s outermost atmospheric layer. A new NASA mission bearing the name of the telescope’s creator, Dr. George R. Carruthers, will launch into space to build on that legacy. From a vantage point roughly one million miles closer to the Sun than Earth is, the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will capture the most comprehensive views of the geocorona to date. The observations will reveal new insights into the structure of our atmosphere, how solar eruptions impact Earth, and how a planet’s surface water can escape to space, aiding the search for habitable planets elsewhere in the universe.

Learn more about Carruthers Geocorona Observatory science: https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/new-nasa-mission-to-reveal-earths-invisible-halo
Learn more about the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/carruthers-geocorona-observatory/

Produced Video

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Complete transcript available.

Music Credit: "Time in Motion” by Rick Hearson [PRS], “Proud Patterns by Paul Joseph Smith [PRS] from Universal Production Music

For More Information

See https://science.nasa.gov/mission/carruthers-geocorona-observatory/

Earth
Sun

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Producers
- Beth Anthony (eMITS)
- Lacey Young (eMITS)
Animators
- Jonathan North (eMITS)
- Wes D. Buchanan (eMITS)
Talents
- Alex Glocer (NASA/GSFC)
- Lara Waldrop (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)