Lobster optics to protect communications agsainst space X-rays

An imaging system inspired by lobsters’ eyes could help to detect phenomena linked to space weather that damages space-borne instruments and electrical and communications infrastructure on Earth. Satellites carrying such ‘lobster-eye optics’ could soon be launched by ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles emitted by the sun — contains a proportion of heavy ions that interact with clouds of electrically neutral gas, given off by comets as they approach the sun, to create ‘soft X-rays’ (radiation with an energy of 100eV to 10keV). This radiation can interfere with communications systems and cause problems with electrical infrastructure on Earth.

NASA has built on simulations created by Tom Craven and Ina Robertson of the University of Kansas to devise an optical element that can focus soft X-rays across a wide plane of view, which would allow researchers to observe events in the Earth’s magnetic field when the solar wind interacts with residual atmosphere to create soft X-rays.