Surrey scientists lead new space weather mission

A first-of-its-kind space mission is planning to reveal more about the magnetic bubble surrounding the earth.

Scientists from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Dorking, Surrey, will help to launch a spacecraft orbiting more than 120,000 km (74,564 miles) above the North Pole.

It is hoped the project will help to picture the edge of the magnetic bubble for the first time, while creating data to improve predictions of space weather for future space missions.

Dr Colin Forsyth, one of the investigators on the project, said: "We have never done anything like this before. We have lots of models and theoretical frameworks but now we get to see what's going on."

The project, dubbed Smile (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) will see the magnetic bubble, or magnetosphere, imaged by detecting x-rays emitted by particles released by the sun, called solar wind.

It will also be the first mission to continuously record the northern lights, which are caused by solar winds, for 45 hours at a time.

The project is a joint effort between the Mullard laboratory, run by University College London, the University of Leicester and the European Space Agency, alongside researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and funding from the UK Space Agency.

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