Japan launches satellite to study geomagnetic storms

KAGOSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) — Japan launched an Epsilon-2 rocket on Tuesday (December 20) carrying the Exploration of Energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) mission satellite.

The satellite will study the creation and disappearance of highly charged electrons in the region of outer space near the Earth along with space storms and the effects of solar winds.

The rocket was successfully launched from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, south-western Japan, at 8 p.m. local time (11am GMT).

The twenty six meter long Epsilon-2 launch vehicle is part of a new generation of solid propellant rockets and makes it possible for launch costs to be reduced up to one third according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The Epsilon-2 rocket will deploy the ERG satellite which is equipped with an array of newly developed scientific instruments to conduct studies on high and low energy particles as well as magnetic field and plasma wave experiments, JAXA said.

The ERG mission marks the first collaborative undertaking by JAXA and Taiwan.

The satellite is fitted with a Low-Energy Particle Sensor for Electron (LEP-e) developed by the Taiwanese Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) in partnership with National Cheng Kung University (NCKU).

The ERG will be released into the ‘Van Allen radiation belt’, which is an area of space that captures masses of highly charged particles.

At its closest point of orbit the ERG will be as close to Earth as 300 km and as far away as 33,200 km at its furthest.

In radiation belts electrons are accelerated close to the speed of light. JAXA is hopeful that the ERG satellite will help to unlock the mystery of particle acceleration throughout the universe