On March 12, 2015, NASA launched four satellites on a mission to study a weird phenomenon in Earth's magnetic field called magnetic reconnection.
When Earth gets bombarded with plasma from the sun, our planet's magnetic field lines can break apart and reconnect. This releases huge bursts of energy in Earth's magnetic environment and can funnel charged particles into the atmosphere, creating pretty auroras. But exactly how and why magnetic reconnection happens is a bit of a mystery. To figure out exactly what's going on, NASA launched the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. The mission's four identical spacecraft fly in a pyramid shape called a tetrahedral formation, which allows the mission to observe these reconnection events in three dimensions. One year since the mission launched, it made the first direct detection of magnetic reconnection.
When Earth gets bombarded with plasma from the sun, our planet's magnetic field lines can break apart and reconnect. This releases huge bursts of energy in Earth's magnetic environment and can funnel charged particles into the atmosphere, creating pretty auroras. But exactly how and why magnetic reconnection happens is a bit of a mystery. To figure out exactly what's going on, NASA launched the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. The mission's four identical spacecraft fly in a pyramid shape called a tetrahedral formation, which allows the mission to observe these reconnection events in three dimensions. One year since the mission launched, it made the first direct detection of magnetic reconnection.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:04On March 12, 2015, NASA launched four satellites on a mission to study a weird
00:08phenomenon in Earth's magnetic field called magnetic reconnection.
00:12When Earth gets bombarded with plasma from the sun, our planet's magnetic field lines
00:16can break apart and reconnect. This releases huge bursts of energy in Earth's
00:20magnetic environment and can funnel charged particles into the atmosphere, creating pretty auroras.
00:24But exactly how and why magnetic reconnection happens is a bit
00:28of a mystery. To figure out exactly what's going on, NASA launched the
00:32Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. The mission's four identical spacecraft fly in
00:36a pyramid shape called a tetrahedral formation, which allows the mission to observe these
00:40reconnection events in three dimensions. One year after the mission launched,
00:44it made the first direct detection of magnetic reconnection.
00:48And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:52NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology