Space Physics:Sounding Rocket Mission to Study Big Question

Tonight is to be launched an important scientific payload on a Black Brant XII sounding rocket from NASA Wallops Flight Facility ,Virginia.The launch window begins at 7:40 pm EST and runs for 40 minutes.The launch may be visible along the East Coast and west to the Mississippi River.NASA has posted a map on its website.* The Black Brant family of sounding rockets is built by Magellan Aerospace of Mississauga, Ontario.It is a four stage,solid propellant rocket capable of flight to more than 200 miles above the Earth's surface. In the course of the mission, the KiNET-X payload will discharge two barium clouds in order to stimulate particle interactions.* The study is being conducted by four space and plasma scientists at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.* Sounding rockets are used to study suborbital space phenomena. Space is defined as at least 100 km above the Earth's surface.In this study, the two barium canisters will be detonated at 249 mi/400.7 km and 186 mi/299.3 km respectively.* The study is being led by space physics professor Peter Delamere.It seeks to understand a key interaction of the Solar Wind with the planets: How does a large plasma such as the Solar Wind interact at the particle level with, for instance, the plasma of the Earth's space environment? The interaction of the Solar Wind with a planet having a magnetic field and a substantial atmosphere results in an aurora.So the study seeks to find out how auroral electrons are energised,a process believed to occur at an extremely small scale, a UA-F press release explains. While the plasma of Earth's magnetosphere is several planetary diameters in scale, the aurora has very thin yet active curtains.Why are they so thin? It is a fundamental mystery of heliophysics.* Experts in plasma and space physics from Dartmouth University; University of New Hampshire; University of Maryland; Clemson University; and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are also participating in the mission.* Magellan Aerospace (MAL:TSX) Note:TD Ameritrade,for one,allows trading on the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange).