European Satellites Launched to Eye Earth’s Magnetic Field

Photo Credit: Reuters The European Space Agency on Friday launched three satellites it hopes will help understand why the magnetic field that makes human life possible on Earth appears to be weakening.

The satellites, comprising ESA’s Swarm project, were launched from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Rockot vehicle at 7.02 a.m. EST and were placed in near-polar orbit at an altitude of 490 kilometers (304 miles) about 91 minutes later.

Data that Swarm is due to collect for the next four years will help improve scientists’ relatively blurry understanding of the magnetic field that shields life on Earth from deadly solar radiation and helps some animals migrate.

Scientists say the magnetosphere is weakening and could all but disappear in as little as 500 years as a precursor to flipping upside down.

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