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 The 20-story-tall rocket, built and launched by United Launch
Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, lifted off
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:44 p.m. EDT.
Perched atop the rocket were four identical satellites designed to
fly in a pyramid formation high around Earth. The probes were
successfully delivered into their initial orbits less than two hours
after launch.
Each satellite is equipped with 25 sensors to record in split-second
detail what happens when the planet's magnetic field lines break
apart and reconnect. Data from the four probes will be combined to
produce three-dimensional maps of the process.
Magnetic reconnection, as the phenomenon is known, is commonplace
throughout the universe, but poorly understood.
 Magnetic fields are generated by planets, stars, galaxies, black
holes and other celestial objects. When field lines snap apart and
reconnect, charged particles are sent soaring into space at nearly
the speed of light, roughly 186,000 miles per second (300,000 km per
second).
On the sun, magnetic reconnection unleashes solar flares, each as
powerful as 1 million atomic bombs. Such solar activity can trigger
magnetic storms and aurora displays on Earth.
NASA is spending about $1.1 billion on the project, known as
Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, in an effort to understand how
the energy is generated and released. The satellites will fly
directly into reconnection zones 44,000 to 95,000 miles (70,811 to
152,888 km) above Earth and map what happens when magnetic field
lines realign.
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"The MMS mission will conduct a definitive experiment in space that
will finally allow us to understand how magnetic reconnection
works," lead researcher Jim Burch from the Southwest Research
Institute in San Antonio, Texas, told reporters at a pre-launch
press conference.
The research may have some practical spinoffs as well. Efforts to
harness nuclear fusion in laboratories have been stymied by magnetic
reconnection, which causes temperatures to drop in the fusion
chambers.
It also may help forecasters predict dangerous solar storms, which
can knock out power grids on Earth and disrupt radio, GPS and
satellite signals.
The mission is designed to last two years.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Steve Gorman and Alan
Raybould)
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