The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has reached new heights after its newest project has launched to study the Earth’s outer atmosphere.

The Carruthers Geocorona Observatory was launched into space on Sept. 24, marking the beginning of the first NASA mission overseen by an Illinois researcher. Dr. Lara Waldrop, lead scientist and associate professor at U of I, led the construction and launch of the new space telescope. The mission, which aims to use ultraviolet imaging to explore how the Earth and its atmosphere interact with space, was the accumulation of more than six years of planning. Her team received $75 million for the building of the observatory at the University’s Grainger College of Engineering.

In a nod to its roots, the observatory is named after Dr. George R. Carruthers, a U of I alumnus and one of the first African-American men to earn a doctorate degree in astrophysics. He invented the camera that took the first images of space in 1970, which allowed scientists to gain a deeper understanding of what space looked like and the prospects for the future of astrophysics.

The observatory carries on the legacy of Dr. Carruthers, as the mission of the geocorona space telescope while in space is to orbit the sun and to take ultraviolet images of the Earth’s upper atmosphere. This information will be vital to determine the pattern and strength of space storms and evaluate how these storms will impact the shape of the atmosphere’s outer edge, helping scientists develop new ways to protect our planet from the sun’s geostorms.

The Grainger College of Engineering has been famed in delivering quality education to its students since 1868 and has produced remarkable alumni such as the co-founders of YouTube and of PayPalhas also sent six alumni into space.