THEMIS weighs in on the Northern Lights

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One of the five THEMIS spacecraft prior to launch. Its two solid-state telescope units each with two opposite-facing SSTs incorporating four silicon detectors each are mounted on the near edge. Credit: UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory
One of the five THEMIS spacecraft prior to launch. Its two solid-state telescope units, each with two opposite-facing SSTs incorporating four silicon detectors each, are mounted on the near edge. Credit: UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory

Instruments known as solid-state telescopes (SSTs), built with detectors fabricated at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and carried aboard the recently launched THEMIS mission, have delivered their first data on how charged particles in the solar wind interact with Earth's magnetic field to shape the planet's magnetosphere.


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