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Similar to how meteorologists fly into hurricanes, NASA

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has now flown a mission through the heart of a magnetic reconnection explosion.

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We call this mission MMS.

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This team of 4 spacecraft studies magnetic reconnection,

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he powerful explosions that occur when magnetic fields collide and realign

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a process that occurs regularly throughout space.

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Close to Earth -- and throughout the universe -- space is far from empty. It contains electrons

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and ions, and most importantly, magnetic fields. This dynamic

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environment is unlike anything we experience on the ground. As we rely more

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on satellites or even prepare for a journey to Mars, we need to understand

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this complex system. Magnetic reconnection is one of the key forces driving particles

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o accelerate through space, and it’s a fundamental driver of space radiation --

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a critical phenomenon to understand when protecting

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our satellites and astronauts. On October 16, 2015, MMS

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traveled straight through a magnetic reconnection event at the boundary

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where Earth’s magnetic fields bump up against the sun’s magnetic fields.

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In only a few seconds, MMS collected hundreds of observations

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of the way the magnetic fields and particles were moving -- represented with arrows

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in this visualization. Watch how they go along steadily and then suddenly being

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to go in every direction. This is the point where the magnetic fields reconfigured

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and particles were sent racing off at high speed.

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For the first time we have observations from the epicenter of an energy transfer as important

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to how things move in space as gravity is to how things move on Earth.

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This is just the start to understanding the huge forces at work in space. In its first year, MMS

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made more than 4,000 trips through the magnetic boundaries around Earth, each time gathering information

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about the way the magnetic fields and particles move and interact in our space environment--

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crucial information as we make plans to explore far beyond our home planet.

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tone

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tone

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beeping

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