An artist’s impression of the four Cluster spacecraft orbiting the Earth, flying in formation at the same distances from one another.
Space scientists around the world are celebrating ten years of groundbreaking discoveries by 'Cluster', a mission that is illuminating the mysteries of the magnetosphere, the northern lights and the solar wind. Cluster is a European Space Agency mission, launched in summer 2000. It consists of a unique constellation of four spacecraft flying in formation around the Earth, studying the interaction between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. The spacecraft each carry an identical set of 11 scientific instruments, which together capture 3D information about the magnetosphere - the Earth's 'magnetic shield'. A key instrument - PEACE - was designed by a team led by space scientists at UCL. The solar wind is a continuous outflow of hot, magnetised, electrified gas from the Sun. The Earth is shielded from the solar wind by its magnetic field, which surrounds the planet in a zone called the magnetosphere, many times larger than the Earth.
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