UK launches £5m SAMS project to unravel secrets of the Sun’s atmosphere



The United Kingdom has officially launched a groundbreaking £5 million scientific initiative known as the SAMS Project (Solar Atmosphere Mapping Spectrometer), aimed at unlocking the secrets of the Sun’s mysterious outer atmosphere. Backed by the UK government and the UK Space Agency, this project is expected to significantly deepen our understanding of the solar corona, the Sun’s outermost and hottest layer — a region that has long puzzled scientists due to its extreme temperatures and complex behavior.

Although the Sun is the most familiar celestial body in our solar system, much about its atmospheric layers remains unknown. In particular, the corona exhibits temperatures that soar to over 1 million degrees Celsius, vastly exceeding the Sun’s surface temperature — a phenomenon that current models have yet to fully explain. The SAMS instrument is designed to address these scientific gaps by using high-resolution spectrometry and imaging techniques to observe how solar energy and magnetic fields interact within the corona. These observations could provide new insights into solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other forms of space weather that have the potential to disrupt Earth’s communication systems, power grids, and satellite networks.

The project is part of the UK’s National Space Innovation Programme and marks a strategic move to position the country as a leader in cutting-edge space research. With the SAMS device expected to be space-ready within the next three years, the UK joins a growing international effort to study the Sun alongside major space agencies such as NASA and ESA. According to officials from the UK Space Agency, this mission is about more than just advancing scientific understanding — it’s about protecting modern life on Earth from the Sun’s volatile behavior and ensuring the safety of our technology-dependent infrastructure.

The launch of the SAMS project demonstrates the UK's ambition to play a vital role in international space research and technology, using its expertise to explore some of the most challenging questions in astrophysics. As development progresses, scientists and observers around the world will be watching closely, hopeful that this project could illuminate one of the most enduring mysteries in solar science.

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