EIU Astro

Today’s podcast sponsered by the  EIU physics department is at :

http://365daysofastronomy.org/2009/06/18/june-18th-themisartemis/

THEMIS which stands for “Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms” is a constellation of 5 satellites and 30 ground-based observatories studying Earth’s magnetosphere and aurora. The main aim of these satellites was to answer fundamental questions concerning nature of an abrupt and explosive release of solar wind energy stored within the Earth’s magnetotail, known as a substorm. Having achieved most of its primary objectives of establishing when and where the substorms begin, the satellite mission will split up in July to become two missions. The first, THEMIS-Low, consisting of the three inner probes will continue to study the Earth’s space environment. The outer probes will explore the space environment of the Moon and renamed ARTEMIS: “Acceleration Reconnection Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of Moon Interaction with the Sun.” NASA has extended the THEMIS/ARTEMIS mission to the year 2012.

In this podcast we talk to Dr. Vassilis Angelopoulos, UC Berkeley, the PI of the mission, Dr. Manfred Bester, the THEMIS Mission Operations Manager and Dr. Laura Peticolas, the lead Education and Public Outreach scientist for this mission. We learn about the discoveries and insights learned from THEMIS, what we hope to learn from ARTEMIS and how these discoveries can be shared with the public.