IMAP Traveling to L1

  • Released Friday, August 22, 2025
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The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, will explore and map the very boundaries of our heliosphere — a huge bubble created by the Sun's wind that encapsulates our entire solar system — and study how the heliosphere interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond. Additionally, IMAP will support real-time observations of the solar wind and energetic particles, which can produce hazardous conditions in the space environment near Earth.

The IMAP spacecraft is situated at the first Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L1), at around one million miles from Earth toward the Sun. There, it will collect and measure particles that have traveled from the Sun, the heliosphere’s boundary 6 to 9 billion miles away, and interstellar space. At L1, it can also provide about a half hour's warning to voyaging astronauts and spacecraft near Earth of harmful radiation coming their way.

Data Visualization

The IMAP mission launches from Earth and arrives at L1. From this vantage point, the spacecraft uses 10 instruments to study how the solar wind interacts with the interstellar medium and how energetic particles are accelerated in space.

Credit: NASA/Tom Bridgman

Conceptual Animation

The IMAP spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to space. The mission is situated at the first Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L1), at around one million miles from Earth toward the Sun.

Credit: Princeton/Patrick McPike

Credits

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

This page was originally published on Friday, August 22, 2025.
This page was last updated on Friday, August 22, 2025 at 4:25 PM EDT.