Similar to how meteorologists fly into hurricanes, NASA
has now flown a mission through the heart of a magnetic reconnection explosion.
We call this mission MMS.
This team of 4 spacecraft studies magnetic reconnection,
he powerful explosions that occur when magnetic fields collide and realign
a process that occurs regularly throughout space.
Close to Earth -- and throughout the universe -- space is far from empty. It contains electrons
and ions, and most importantly, magnetic fields. This dynamic
environment is unlike anything we experience on the ground. As we rely more
on satellites or even prepare for a journey to Mars, we need to understand
this complex system. Magnetic reconnection is one of the key forces driving particles
o accelerate through space, and it’s a fundamental driver of space radiation --
a critical phenomenon to understand when protecting
our satellites and astronauts. On October 16, 2015, MMS
traveled straight through a magnetic reconnection event at the boundary
where Earth’s magnetic fields bump up against the sun’s magnetic fields.
In only a few seconds, MMS collected hundreds of observations
of the way the magnetic fields and particles were moving -- represented with arrows
in this visualization. Watch how they go along steadily and then suddenly being
to go in every direction. This is the point where the magnetic fields reconfigured
and particles were sent racing off at high speed.
For the first time we have observations from the epicenter of an energy transfer as important
to how things move in space as gravity is to how things move on Earth.
This is just the start to understanding the huge forces at work in space. In its first year, MMS
made more than 4,000 trips through the magnetic boundaries around Earth, each time gathering information
about the way the magnetic fields and particles move and interact in our space environment--
crucial information as we make plans to explore far beyond our home planet.
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