Magnetospheric multiscale spacecraft poised for launch
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - 18:10
in Astronomy & Space
On March 12, NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft are scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas V rocket to begin a two-year investigation of one of the most basic and important physical processes in the universe—magnetic reconnection. The mission will fly four identical spacecraft in a pyramid formation, using the Earth's magnetosphere as a laboratory to study how the Sun's magnetic field merges with the Earth's magnetic field, explosively converting magnetic energy into heat and kinetic energy.