Mission News
This artist's concept shows the explosion of energy responsible for sudden increases in the brightness and movement of the Northern Lights. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab What causes the shimmering, ethereal Northern Lights to suddenly brighten and dance in a spectacular burst of colorful light and rapid movement? To find out, NASA launched a fleet of five satellites called THEMIS, the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms.Researchers have discovered that an explosion of magnetic energy a third of the way to the moon powers substorms, sudden brightenings and rapid movements of the aurora borealis, called the Northern Lights.
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The Mission
THEMIS is a mission to investigate what causes auroras in the Earth's atmosphere to dramatically change from slowly shimmering waves of light to wildly shifting streaks of color. Discovering what causes auroras to change will provide scientists with important details on how the planet's magnetosphere works and the important Sun-Earth connection.
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Mission Features
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THEMIS Finds Trigger of Northern Lights Eruptions
Researchers have discovered that an explosion of magnetic energy powers sudden brightenings and rapid movements of the Northern Lights.
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How to Explore Something Enormous and Mostly Invisible: Part 1
Build and Deploy a Fleet of Spacecraft
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How to Explore Something Enormous and Mostly Invisible: Part 2
Create a Continent-spanning Observatory Network on the Ground
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THEMIS Arrives in Florida for Launch Preparations
News and Events
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Spring is Aurora Season
03.04.08 - For reasons not fully understood, auroras are more common in the spring than at other times. The five-craft THEMIS fleet may help scientists determine why.
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NASA Spacecraft Make New Discoveries About Northern Lights
THEMIS has made three important discoveries about spectacular eruptions of Northern Lights called "substorms" and the source of their power.
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THEMIS Status - July 16, 2007
07.16.07 - Status report on the THEMIS spacecraft as of July 16, 2007.
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NASA's THEMIS Mission Launched to Study Geomagnetic Substorms
02.17.07 - NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms mission successfully launched Saturday, Feb. 17 at 6:01 p.m. EST from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral.
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Launch of THEMIS Postponed 24 Hours
02.16.07 - The launch of NASA's THEMIS spacecraft aboard a Delta II rocket was scrubbed tonight six minutes before launch due to out-of-limit upper level winds.
Launch Coverage
Launch of THEMIS
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Multimedia
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Watch the THEMIS story →
All about the THEMIS satellites in a short video package.
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THEMIS Movie Trailer
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THEMIS All Sky Imaging Movie
› View these Quicktimes
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THEMIS at KSC
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THEMIS Lithograph
 "THEMIS launch animation")