Question: NASA stands for… .
a) National Aeronautics and Space Administration
b) National Air force and space Administration
c) National Air force and Ship Administration
d) None of the above.
Ans (a)
Related facts:
- NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) has set the Guinness World Record for highest altitude fix of a GPS signal — 70,006.4 kilometres above the surface of the earth.
- Earlier this year, MMS achieved the closest flying separation of a multi-spacecraft formation with only 7.2 km between the four satellites.
- When closest to Earth, the satellites move at up to 35,405 km per hour, making them the fastest known operational use of a GPS receiver.
- MMS will enter Phase 2 of the mission next year and the satellites will be sent in to an even larger orbit to explore a different part of Earth’s magnetosphere.
- MMS is in the first year of its prime mission and giving scientists new insight into Earth’s magnetosphere.
- The mission uses four individual satellites that fly in a pyramid formation to map magnetic reconnection – a process that occurs as the sun and Earth’s magnetic fields interact.
- Understanding the causes of magnetic reconnection is important for understanding phenomena around the universe from auroras on Earth, to flares on the surface of the sun, and even to areas surrounding black holes.
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/nasas-mms-creates-new-guinness-world-record-1621679
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/nasa-satellites-set-guinness-record/article9312483.ece
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2016/nasa-scientist-to-discuss-space-weather-report-at-library-of-congress-lecture