NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Launch Set For Mar. 12
By NASA.gov // March 8, 2015
to study earths magnetic energy
ABOVE VIDEO: Scientists Michael Hesse and John Dorelli explain the science objectives of the MMS mission.
BREVARD COUNTY • CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FLORIDA – Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on an Atlas V 421 launch vehicle on March 12, the Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission will study the mystery of how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy via a process known a magnetic reconnection.
The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission studies the mystery of how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy via a process known a magnetic reconnection.
Tune in to SpaceCoastDaily.com on March 12 to watch the launch live. The launch is scheduled to liftoff at 10:44 a.m.
MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that work together to provide the first three-dimensional view of this fundamental process, which occurs throughout the universe.
The mission observes reconnection directly in Earth’s protective magnetic space environment, the magnetosphere.
By studying reconnection in this local, natural laboratory, MMS helps us understand reconnection elsewhere as well, such as in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars, in the vicinity of black holes and neutron stars, and at the boundary between our solar system’s heliosphere and interstellar space.
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