TRACERS Spacecraft Beauty Passes

  • Released Monday, March 24, 2025
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The TRACERS, or the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, mission will help scientists understand an explosive process called magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic fields and particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field. By understanding this process, scientists will be able to better understand and prepare for impacts of solar activity on Earth, such as auroras and disruptions to telecommunications.

Learn more about the mission: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/tracers/

Beauty Pass – 4K

Credit: University of Iowa / Andy Kale

Vertical Pan – 4K

Credit: University of Iowa / Andy Kale

Instruments – 8K

Some of the tools TRACERS will use to study the local plasma involved in magnetic reconnection – including the EFI, MAG, MSC and MAGIC instruments – will be on arms attached to the outside of the spacecraft.

Credit: Millennium Space Systems

For More Information

See NASA.gov

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Monday, March 24, 2025.
This page was last updated on Monday, April 14, 2025 at 3:58 PM EDT.