美国发射4颗卫星研究神秘磁重联现象

those reconnections take place. MMS is the only way we can solve this mystery and we look forward to doing it."

Scientists also think that a better understanding of magnetic reconnection can lead to a better and cleaner energy production on Earth since fusion reactors are limited by the way magnetic fields behave.

Each MMS observatory is equipped with 25 sensors and can record magnetic interactions more than 100 times faster than any previous mission. The observatories were built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Each weighs about 3,000 pounds fully fueled and measures 11 feet in diameter by 4 feet high. Once flying on their own, each spacecraft will deploy a set of booms that are carrying some of the instruments expected to measure the magnetic conditions. They will fly in the portion of space where the sun's magnetic field connects with Earth's and later in the night-side portion of Earth's magnetic field where reconnection is thought to trigger the auroras known as the northern and southern lights.

The shortest of the instrumented booms are about 15 feet long, while the wire booms reach out some 200 feet from each side of the spacecraft to detect the magnetic fields.

"Each of these spacecraft will have a footprint about the size of a football field," Tooley said. Their formation will change dimensions during the mission but they will generally not get any closer than 5 miles to each other. "It's best to think of this mission as a flying laboratory, not really a remote sensing spacecraft, essentially scientists flying these spacecraft through a natural laboratory."

The launch was the 53rd for the Atlas V and marked the completion of about six years of rocket selection, manufacturing and integration ahead of the launch preparation for the MMS and NASA's Launch Services Program teams along with United Launch Alliance.

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