NASA's magnetic line reconnaissance devices form a pyramid in space

In March, four spacecraft were launched into space, which are designed to study the magnetic fields of the Earth and the Sun. Then these devices ( NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) program ) went into outer space aboard the Atlas unmanned rocket. The launch was successful , and the satellites separated from the rocket at a given time.

According to the plan, the satellites were to enter an elongated orbit of tens of thousands of kilometers in the magnetosphere. All of them should be nearby, at a distance of 10 to 400 kilometers from each other, forming a structural pyramid. Scientists have chosen this form in order to optimally study the reconnection of magnetic lines on a small scale - something like this we observe during geomagnetic storms, solar flares and northern lights. Now the satellites just formed this pyramid . In the entire history of space research, this is the first case of creating structures of similar complexity from spacecraft.

Each of the stations is quite large - with a diameter of 3.35 meters, and a height of 1.21 meters. Weight - almost one and a half tons. The reconnection of magnetic lines has already been studied, but this project will allow much more thorough work.

Magnetic reconnection (reconnection of magnetic lines) is a process where magnetic field lines from different magnetic domains converge together and quickly rebuild. With this magnetic reconnection of the lines of force, the magnetic field energy heats the nearest regions of the solar atmosphere and accelerates charged particles to high speed.

MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale mission) is the fourth mission in a row, which is part of a larger project - the NASA Solar Terrestrial Probes Program. The purpose of this program is to study fundamental physical processes in outer space, in the Earth-Moon region, on other planets, and in some other regions.