A team of researchers from Imperial College London has introduced a new small satellite called HENON, short for Heliospheric pioneer for solar and interplanetary threats defence. This CubeSat is designed to enhance space weather forecasting, which involves predicting disturbances in space caused by solar activity. HENON was unveiled at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting, which took place from July 20–24, 2026. Alongside HENON, the team presented MAGIC, a magnetometer developed at Imperial College to measure the solar magnetic field. Currently, space weather forecasts provide only 15 to 60 minutes of warning before a solar event impacts Earth. This limited time is due to existing satellites being stationed at the L1 Lagrange point, a location about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth where the gravitational pull of the Sun and Earth balance out. HENON, however, is designed to orbit much farther out—at 15 million kilometers from Earth, or 10 times the distance of current satellites. This increased distance is expected to extend the warning time for space weather events from 15 minutes to up to three hours, giving more time for preparation and response. Dr. Jonathan Eastwood, a professor of space physics at Imperial College London and lead author of the study, emphasized that HENON could mark a major advancement in space weather forecasting. He noted that the success of HENON would support the development of a future mission called SHIELD by the European Space Agency (ESA). SHIELD is intended to be a larger, more advanced version of HENON, positioned at a similar distance from Earth to provide continuous and more accurate forecasts. Historical space weather events highlight the importance of such advancements. The Carrington Event of 1859, one of the most powerful solar storms on record, caused widespread auroras and disrupted telegraph systems. More recently, the "Jennifer Gannon" superstorm in 2024 and a solar radiation storm in 2026 were classified as extreme and severe, respectively, using the Space Weather Scales developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These scales rate geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms, and radio blackouts from 1 (minor) to 5 (extreme). As HENON and future missions like SHIELD continue to improve, they aim to provide more reliable warnings, helping to protect modern technology from the impacts of space weather.