NASA's twin TRACERS satellites just read Earth's magnetic doorway for the first time

High above Earth's poles sit two funnel-shaped openings — the cusps — where energy from the solar wind pours into our magnetic shield. NASA's TRACERS mission flies two satellites through them in tandem, one behind the other, to settle a basic question: does the energy entryway change mostly from place to place, or moment to moment? Its first published results, in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, classified 207 paired passes: 129 were dominated by differences of place, 48 by changes over time. NASA has extended the mission into spring 2027 to keep listening.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: tech innovation