A European-Chinese spacecraft just launched to photograph something nobody has ever actually seen - the invisible shield that keeps the solar wind from sterilizing Earth

A joint European-Chinese spacecraft built to image Earth’s magnetic shield launched Tuesday from French Guiana, opening a three-year mission to study how the planet responds to the constant pressure of the solar wind. The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, known as SMILE, lifted off atop a Vega C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou […] A joint European-Chinese spacecraft built to image Earth’s magnetic shield launched Tuesday from French Guiana, opening a three-year mission to study how the planet responds to the constant pressure of the solar wind. The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ion... [5792 chars]