NASA Logo in the header
Sciences and Exploration Directorate
Operational

Magnetospheric Multiscale Satellites (MMS)

MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that orbit around Earth through the dynamic magnetic system surrounding our planet to study a little-understood phenomenon called magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process that happens in space, which powers a wide variety of events, from giant explosions on the sun to green-blue auroras shimmering in the night sky.

Launch Date

March 2015

Class

--

Websites


Key Staffs
Instrument

MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that orbit around Earth through the dynamic magnetic system surrounding our planet to study a little-understood phenomenon called magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process that happens in space, which powers a wide variety of events, from giant explosions on the sun to green-blue auroras shimmering in the night sky.

Related Publications

2025. "Magnitude of Short-wavelength Electric Field Fluctuations in Simulations of Collisionless Plasma Shocks.", The Astrophysical Journal, 992 (104): 11 [10.3847/1538-4357/ae06a9] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Effects of Nonresonant Instability and Magnetic Reconnection on Ion Heating and Acceleration in Quasi-parallel Shock Waves.", The Astrophysical Journal, 992 (77): 19 [10.3847/1538-4357/ae00c9] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Electron Acceleration in Thinning Nonreconnecting Current Sheets in a Quasi-parallel Shock.", The Astrophysical Journal, 992 (183): 18 [10.3847/1538-4357/ae0327] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Multimission Observations of Relativistic Electrons and High-speed Jets Linked to Shock-generated Transients.", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 981 (1): L10 [10.3847/2041-8213/adb154] [Journal Article/Letter]

2025. "Compound electron acceleration at planetary foreshocks.", Nature Communications, 16 (1): 77 [10.1038/s41467-024-55464-8] [Journal Article/Letter]