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all right so it is my pleasure to talk
to you about NASA's Heliophysics

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division which is everything under the
Sun, we like we like our acronyms we like

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our single words so we we came up with
Heliophysics to really mean everything

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that the Sun controls everything that it
looks after and everything that it

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impacts, so it impacts all the way from
the very very close into the Sun all the

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way out to the very edge of our solar
system as it actually shapes the very

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cavity that our solar system orbits
around the Milky Way in and so we have a

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fleet of spacecraft in the Heliophysics
division that actually, oops,

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yes but actually study that we have a
lot of spacecraft that are very close to

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the Earth they're looking at the
ionosphere, thermosphere system we move

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out we cover the magnetosphere as we
move further outside we can see our

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solar observatories that watch the Sun
24/7 you can see SOHO. Wind and ACE that

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are monitoring everything that is coming
from the Sun in the solar wind and then

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if we move a little further out as we
move away from Earth and we passed by

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the planet they or the orbit of Venus
and Mercury then you'll see the very

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plucky Parker Solar Probe that is
orbiting the Sun in very large petal

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orbits launched last year and already
bringing great science results we've

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seen papers in nature and incredible
science results presented here today and

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then going if we go even further out all
the way out beyond Pluto to the very

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edge of our Heliosphere Voyager
spacecraft that have been on on orbit or

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in space for now 42 years still sending
back vital information to us about our

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very edge of space and in fact now
interstellar space having crossed for

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the very first time out of the the sort
of influence of our solar wind but very

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close to home we love our Sun it not
only is it the Sun that that we we have

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to live with and it has big impacts on
us but it's actually a star it's the

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only star right now that we can actually
go and visit and so we go in and we

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study all of the the wonderful things
that our star does

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we've looked at the Sun in just about
every different wavelength possible

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we've been in as close as the planet
Mercury but not until last year when we

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launched Parker Solar Probe will be able
to really go into this magic region in

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this region where all of the action
happens and you look at the Sun in

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visible it looks like a fairly uniform
yellow disc you may see a couple of

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small blacks dark spots on it that we
call sunspots but when you look at the

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Sun in any other wavelength you see that
it's an incredibly incredibly active

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star regularly having events that throw
billions of tons of this coronal

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material out into space often actually
impacting our planet so here is Parker

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Solar Probe daring and flying very, very
close to the Sun flying through the

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Sun's Corona the reason we needed to do
this is that we there are mysteries in

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the Corona that we have not yet been
able to explain one is that hazy

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atmosphere that you see during a total
solar eclipse is about 300 times hotter

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than the surface of the Sun and that
just doesn't really make sense also

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where we see this incredible heating we
also see big acceleration and so the

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plasma that would normally be
constrained on the magnetic field lines

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and held close to the Sun it's a big
giant star it's got a big gravitational

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pole but despite that this material can
actually be accelerated and move away

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from the Sun bathing all of the planets
and indeed shaping our Heliosphere so

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we've had wonderful results from
Parker's Solar Probe here at the meeting

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this is sort of a view of what Parker's
Solar Probe is seeing during the first

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orbit and so you can see how big the Sun
actually looks that gives you an idea of

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how close parker Solar Probe is to the
Sun in the current configuration she's

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about 15 point eight million miles away
from the Sun we will do a second

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Venus flyby in December, December 26 of
this year and she will go to a smaller

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configuration and then her closest
approach will be about 12 million miles

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away from the surface of the Sun
so here's his data from the WISPR

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camera this is one of the the
instruments aboard Parker Solar Probe

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this image it doesn't take it's not a
traditional solar imager it doesn't take

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pictures of the Sun but it's taking
pictures of the solar wind and all of

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the structures that the spacecraft is
about to fly through it's extremely

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important for us because we're now in a
in a region where we've never been

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before and so we're having these
incredible data these these new results

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and it's really helping to be able to
explain what we're seeing because we can

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look at the structures and the type of
solar wind that we're flying through one

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of the big results that was published in
nature last week was actually what we're

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calling switchbacks and so if you look
at the magnetic field here this is a

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magnetic field line moving away from the
Sun we would expect that magnetic field

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line to be straight but actually what we
see is are these sort of s-shaped curves

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that we calling switchbacks and if you
think of a magnetic field line a bit

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like a rubber rope it's extremely hard
to get it to bend back and do this

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strange configuration so there is some
kind of wave structure that is going on

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in the corona that is causing these s
shapes to occur and as those s shapes

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relax they're letting an awful lot of
energy out into the solar wind and so we

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think this is definitely one of the
mechanisms that we're now seeing that is

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causing this heating and acceleration of
the solar wind so even on the very first

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orbit of Parker Solar Probe we're
already getting results for our

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overarching questions of why is that
corona so hot and why is the solar wind

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continually accelerated, so when the when
the solar wind, so when the Sun is very

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active we it will throw off these very
large events also as I mentioned

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continually flowing not just when we see
these large events but this solar wind

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is continually flowing so it's
continually sending these huge streams

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of particles out into interstellar space
so as as it leaves the Sun these

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particles will come and first of all
they wrap around any of the planets that

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are that you know
between the Sun and us and so I think

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you'll see the first thing as it goes
past the planet Mercury and then on to

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the planet Venus and then it's kind of a
strange feeling I feel like it's coming

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up to get me from behind
but there's so it's going to go around

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the planet Venus Venus doesn't have a
particularly strong magnetic field so it

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doesn't have a huge impact when it gets
to Venus but you'll see the difference

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when those particles get to earth Earth
has a very strong magnetic field and so

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that though our magnetic field will
actually repel a lot of those particles

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that guides them around our magnetic
environment our magnetosphere keeping

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most of that really dangerous radiation
out and so you can see the way they get

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sort of channeled around of course some
of the per some of the energy gets in

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just because we keep the the dangerous
particles out we can actually get a lot

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of energy from the solar wind coming in
and causing big configurations big

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changes in our magnetic field and those
changes in the magnetic field actually

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give rise to the very beautiful Northern
lights Northern and Southern lights I

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should say and so as all this energy
comes into the magnetosphere as the

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magnetosphere kind of relaxes these
particles come shooting down the field

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lines they impact the ionosphere and
they impact the gases that we find in

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the ionosphere so mostly that is oxygen
and nitrogen and they cause it to glow

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so that the colors that you see in the
aurora a fingerprint of what what gas is

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actually glowing so where you see green
that is an oxygen line if you see blue

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or red it is typically nitrogen ik red
can also be oxygen too but this is a

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nice shot this is actually the Aurora
Australis as the the space station goes

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over the southern hemisphere taking
beautiful images of the Aurora and also

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some air glow so whenever we see big
events not only do we see the Aurora

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which has definite impacts for power
grids but we can also see our radiation

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belts so the Earth is encircled by two
belts of there

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very intense radiation when we have
these really big storms these belts can

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pump up both in energy and also in size
which means the spacecraft that are not

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designed and do not expect to be in the
radiation belts can suddenly find

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themselves engulfed by these huge, huge
radiation storms we had we had the Van

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Allen probes that recently we had to say
goodbye to our Van Allen probes because

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they ran out of fuel but we've had seven
years of incredible data from those two

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spacecraft that have lived and worked in
this region of incredible dangerous

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radiation and so that's another so we
have the Aurora we also have the

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radiation belts and then if we come down
just a little bit further we also see

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impacts in the ionosphere system so
where you would expect radio waves to

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kind of bounce off or even travel
through as we use our GPS signals we see

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a lot of these storms that cause kind of
bubbles in that region which can stop

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the radio signals passing through them
and so we see every single piece of

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technology almost that you can imagine
is is clearly impacted by space weather

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and so it's impacted by the solar wind
and its effect on our planet and so of

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course we worry about our technology we
worry about our spacecraft we worry

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about the space station we have
passenger passenger planes that fly

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across the polar routes they can be
affected when you get large amounts of

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radiation coming in it can also stop
communication for the polar routes for

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the ships as they're going across there
but most importantly for us here at NASA

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it can cause problems for our astronauts
safety and so as we as we stand ready to

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support the Artemis program the number
one thing of course for us is to protect

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our astronauts and the way we do that is
by making these measurements with the

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heliophysics fleet to really understand
what is happening with the solar wind

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and how that is going to impact our
astronauts particularly with Artemis

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we're not just going to have very short
excursions up to the moon and back but

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we're getting ready to do extended
presence in space and so we'll be out in

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the pristine solar wind
and so it makes our job in heliophysics

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just that bit more important and a bit
more challenging as we now have to be

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able to predict what is going to come
from the Sun and impact our astronauts

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and then the final thing of course we do
in Heliophysics not only do we we worry

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about everything that happens here at
earth we worry about everything that

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happens throughout the entire Solar
System the the solar wind beats all of

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the planets it's still there at Pluto it
continues beyond and further and further

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and then at the very edge sort of runs
out of steam if you like it slows down

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and it meets interstellar space and
there is a boundary between the solar

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wind and interstellar space that is
continually moving and it kind of

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breathes with a solar system and so at
solar maximum the the boundary is

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further away at solar minimum it kind of
breathes in and so we have a very brave

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Voyager spacecraft that have actually
left the heliosphere they are out in

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interstellar space we also have the IBEX
mission which is taking images of the

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particles that are out in this boundary
region and we're also getting ready in a

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couple of years to launch a follow-on
mission called IMAP that will really do

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a great job of doing sort of
high-resolution maps of that outer

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boundary of space and so I will leave
you with with my Heliophysics logo it is

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a great time to be a Helio physicist we
have made an awful lot of new selections

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we're bringing a lot of new missions
into our fleet and we are we are really

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enjoying the tremendous results the
tremendous data that we're getting of

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course Parker Solar Probe with all the
new data we also this year launched ICON

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which is a mission that is looking at
kind of the interplay with terrestrial

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weather so storms and hurricanes and
tornados from below and how they

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actually impact with the space weather
coming in from above there's a very

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fragile region that aware these two
systems are actually working together so

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it's a really nice interaction for us
with Earth science and that's yet

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another new mission that we have
and so all of the data that we take in

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Heliophysics
is really driven by the solar wind and

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therefore we send we're very excited to
support the Artemis mission and as we as

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we lean forward and we go forward to the
moon to the Mars and beyond the Heliophysics

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Division stands ready to support the
mission thank you very much