Congratulations to the NASA MMS Team, led by CU Physics Professor Marty Goldman who launched the NASA Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission (MMS). The Mission听听from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V rocket on Thursday, March 12.
听will study explosive events in two regions of Earth鈥檚 magnetosphere.听 One is on the day side (鈥渕agnetopause") 鈥� where solar magnetic field lines run counter to Earth鈥檚 compressed dipole magnetic field lines.听 The other is on the night side (the highly elongated 鈥渕agnetotail鈥�) where neighboring field lines oppose each other.听 Opposing magnetic fields can 鈥渞econnect,鈥� snapping back over huge distances (many Earth radii), while releasing听 stored magnetic energy.听 This 鈥淢agnetic Reconnection鈥� energizes particles and produces radiation which can interfere with communications and power grids and endanger spacecraft and aircraft.
For the past seven years Professor Goldman has been Principal Investigator on a 3.3M$ NASA grant providing theory and simulation support for the MMS mission.听 He and his IDS team () have studied particle heating and motion, nonlinear waves, and energy transport during听 magnetotail and solar wind reconnection.听 Goldman鈥檚 team consists of simulation and theory experts, Dr. David Newman (Physics) and Prof. Giovanni Lapenta (consultant) as well as LASP observational scientists Dr. Stefan Eriksson, Dr. Laila Andersson and Dr. Jack Gosling.
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