NASA Spacecraft’s Breakthrough Exploration Measures Magnetic Storms, Solves Mystery of Magnetic Fields

For the first time ever, a fleet of NASA spacecrafts has directly witnessed the mysterious way explosive storms occur when the magnetic fields of the Earth and Sun interact. The magnetic explosions have an endangering effect on astronauts in space, spacecraft, satellites and even power grids on Earth.

The groundbreaking discovery was made by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS), which flew four spacecrafts into Earth's magnetosphere, through magnetic reconnection which is an invisible space maelstrom. Incidentally, the magnetosphere is a bubble surrounding our planet where the dominant magnetic field belongs to Earth rather than that of interplanetary space. The interaction of solar wind with Earth's magnetic field creates the magnetosphere.

"We developed a mission, the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, that for the first time would have the precision needed to gather observations in the heart of magnetic reconnection," said Jim Burch of MMS. "We received results faster than we could have expected. By seeing magnetic reconnection in action, we have observed one of the fundamental forces of nature."

Four identical spacecrafts that fly in a pyramid formation make MMS, and create a complete 3D map of every phenomenon they observe. The spacecrafts flew directly through a magnetic reconnection on Oct. 16, 2015.  In a matter of mere seconds, the fleet made thousands of observations with each of the spacecrafts' 25 sensors. Until now, MMS has made more than 4,000 trips through Earth's magnetic boundaries and five flights straight through magnetic reconnection since its first direct observation.

One of the mysteries surrounding magnetic reconnection is its variation, sometimes it is explosive, at other times it is steady, and there are also instances when it doesn't take place at all. However, whether they are explosive or steady, magnetic reconnection acts like a slingshot that hurls off local particles caught in the event, to areas across magnetic boundaries that couldn't otherwise be crossed. The event also lets solar radiation enter the space near Earth, at the edge of the magnetosphere.

MMS could track what happened to electrons during magnetic reconnection as well as see how the magnetic fields shifted suddenly. On the basis of the observations, it was seen that magnetic reconnection is an "orderly and elegant" process without too much turbulence.

According to NASA, the probe into magnetic reconnection can help throw light on the mystery of dangerous solar outbursts, which will subsequently help in improving the design of advanced nuclear reactors. The mission will also help in learning more about space radiation, a major driver of space environment, which will protect astronauts and spacecrafts as they travel away farther away from Earth.