Jan 25 2001
From The Space Library
NASA made available the first large-scale images revealing a tail of electrified gas streaming from Earth toward the Sun. One of the images, which NASA’s Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft had produced, appeared on the cover of Science. The IMAGE technology had captured new views of previously unverifiable gas trapped within Earth’s magnetic field, known as the magnetosphere. The images placed in the context of the solar system the vast reach of the region affected by Earth’s magnetosphere, which extends past the Moon on the night side of Earth. Astronomers compared the perspective the new images provided them, to the perspective satellite images of Earth provide to scientists researching hurricanes. 10 NASA, “NASA’s Image Reveals Earth’s Invisible Magnetic Tail,” news release 01-08, 25 January 2001; cover of Science 291, no. 5504 (26 January 2001).
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