NASA launched four new satellites into lower Earth orbit to study how magnetic fields interact with each other when they disconnect and reconnect in another direction. This same phenomenon is also observed when the Sun produces sunspots.

A Atlas-V 421 rocket blasted off March 12 at 10:44 p.m. EST carrying four NASA observation satellites into orbit. The satellites reached their orbits less than two hours later.

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This satellite mission is known as the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) experiment, which is a system designed to observe a unique phenomenon called magnetic reconnection in a more in depth manner.

This magnetic reconnection occurs when the magnetism of planets and suns and other stars moves the magnetic fields found at the poles. This magnetism briefly separates and reconnects but in another direction.

During reconnection, an explosion of particles blasts off into space at almost the speed of light. The Sun emits this extreme energy called a coronal mass ejections visible from Earth as sunspots.

This phenomenon also exists on the Earth. The magnetic reconnection is much weaker than on the sun, however. This satellite mission will hopefully shed new information about how this reconnection works from a height of 152,888 kilometers above the surface of the planet.

This is the first opportunity to study this fundamental process in great detail, according to Jim Burch, the principal investigator of the MMS instrument suite science team at the Southwest Research Institute.

Data from this research will also be helpful for applied engineering, especially in prototype nuclear fusion reactors where the same magnetic reactions occur. Scientists are hopeful they can use these results from the satellites to explain the sudden drop in temperatures found in fusion chambers.

Apart from this, it could also be pivotal in predicting coronal mass ejections from the Sun before they actually happen. Heavy sunspot ejections can lead to the disruption of communications and radio transmissions on Earth and even power grids can experience failure from the electromagnetic impact from solar storms. 

TagsNASA Satellites Launched to Study Powerful Magnetic Explosions on Earth, NASA MMS satellites, magnetic explosions on earth, Magnetosphere, NASA