article_snippet: A Nasa mission designed to study the interaction of Earth's magnetic field and the sun launched this morning at 2:44am GMT (last night at 10:44pm EDT).
article_snippet: The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission will use four identical spacecraft to measure a mysterious process known as magnetic reconnection.
article_snippet: these will fly around Earth in an elliptical orbit, travelling through two regions where magnetic reconnection is thought to be occurring.
article_snippet: At the other side of Earth, away from the sun, the spacecraft will pass through a region where Earth's magnetic field lines combine, and produce a similar effect.
article_snippet: They were stacked together for the launch (illustrated) the spacecraft will fly around Earth in an elliptical orbit, travelling through two regions where magnetic reconnection is thought to be occurring.
article_snippet: Magnetic reconnection can harm satellites (illustrated) and affect communications, so scientists are keen to understand more about the phenomenon .
article_snippet: The mission will provide the first three-dimensional views of reconnection occurring in Earth's magnetic space environment.
article_snippet: The mission will provide the first three-dimensional views of reconnection occurring in Earth's magnetic space environment (illustrated).
article_snippet: the data could also provide information on how magnetic reconnection occurs near black holes and neutron stars, and also at the edge of the solar system at the boundary of our sun's influence and interstellar space. '
article_snippet: MMS is a crucial next step in advancing the science of magnetic reconnection – and no mission has ever observed the process with such detail,' said Jeff Newmark, interim director for Nasa's Heliophysics Division at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. '
highlights_snippet: Mission will study the interaction of Earth and the sun's magnetic fields .
  