NASA to Launch Magnetic Storm Probes 51
eldavojohn writes "The aurora borealis (also known as the Northern Lights) has long been known to be an effect resulting from the Sun's solar wind pushing particles into the earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. In light of the possible danger that these substorms could pose to astronauts & equipment, NASA is now planning a mission to track down these magnetic storms and disturbances. The program's not so catchy name of Time History of Events and Macroscale Interaction during Substorms has a slightly catchier acronym of THEMIS. From the article, "In order to scan the Earth's magnetic field and pinpoint the origin of substorms, THEMIS researchers plan to stagger their spacecraft in different orbits that range in altitude from 10 to 30 times the radius of the Earth (the planet's radius is about 3,962 miles, or 6,378 kilometers).""
THEMIS is the ancient Greek Goddess of... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Kinda makes you wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
The issue that NASA is trying to resolve has much more important value than the previous post is thinking. The mechanisms for the aurora and other processes are very powerful producing electrical currents at the highest levels ever seen. What is more the processes do affect the earth in profound ways. The link between these and the weather is being firmly established. NASA is starting to get the data together that is linking the stellar space behavior and that of all weather on the planet earth.
Yes this is very important. It involves everything from the trivial to the profound. Make no mistake about it the aurora mechanism is very important to understanding the physics of the universe as well. There is a considerable prejudice against what is coming down form SOHO and other platforms. The Electrical Nature of the Universe is being proved with very strong evidence thought the Gravity only crowd still attacks it. The entire electrical circuit will be pretty much locked up when this network of measuring devices is installed. At which point the whole nature of the cosmos will be shown without doubt to be vastly different from the classical assumptions. Yes this is important stuff here.