America
New NASA spacecraft to study Earth's magnetic fields
The US space agency is set for the launch of Magnetospheric Multiscale
(MMS) spacecraft March 12, the first space mission dedicated to the
study of magnetic reconnection.
This fundamental process occurs
throughout the universe where magnetic fields connect and disconnect
with an explosive release of energy, a NASA statement said.
"Magnetic
reconnection is one of the most important drivers of space weather
events," said Jeff Newmark, interim director of the Heliophysics
Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
Eruptive solar
flares, coronal mass ejections and geomagnetic storms all involve the
release, through reconnection of energy stored in magnetic fields.
"Space
weather events can affect modern technological systems such as
communications networks, GPS navigation and electrical power grids," he
informed.
The spacecraft will begin science operations in
September. Unlike previous missions to observe the evidence of magnetic
reconnection events, MMS will have sufficient resolution to measure the
characteristics of ongoing reconnection events as they occur.
The mission consists of four identical space observatories that will provide the first 3D view of magnetic reconnection.
Because
the observatories will fly through reconnection regions in a tight
formation, in less than a second, key sensors on each spacecraft are
designed to measure the space environment at rates faster than any
previous mission.
The mission observes reconnection directly in
Earth's protective magnetic space environment known as the
magnetosphere. By studying reconnection in this natural laboratory, MMS
will help scientists understand reconnection elsewhere, such as the
atmosphere of the Sun, the vicinity of black holes, neutron stars and
the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space.
The
launch of MMS on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket will be
managed by the Launch Services Programme at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre
in Florida.