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(Image: NASA/Ben Smegelsky)

NASA’s latest mission is a four-in-one deal. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft, seen here stacked up ready to be encased ready for launch, will fly in a pyramid formation to study how Earth’s magnetosphere interacts with the sun’s.

An Atlas V rocket is due to lift its payload of 5 tonnes of space hardware from Cape Canaveral, Florida, into orbit tomorrow. The MMS satellites are designed to travel in highly elliptical orbits through regions where a process called magnetic reconnection is thought to occur. This happens when Earth’s magnetic field merges with that of the sun and makes sparks fly: it’s one of the reasons Earth has auroras, and sometimes forces our planet to throw up a protective plasma shield.