Here’s a fun question that not only have I myself asked, but I get asked fairly often, why do we hear a call out like “roger roll” or “roll program complete” at which point we can see the rocket rotate or roll on its X axis…

The best example of this was the Space Shuttle which had a very obvious and dramatic roll program. As soon as it cleared the tower, you can see it making a very impressive and sometimes scary looking roll.

A very recent occurrence happened in the magnetosphere around Earth – more specifically the magnetotail! The magnetotail is the region of the Earth’s magnetosphere that is facing AWAY from the Sun (the TAIL-END, hence the name magnetoTAIL). This region is filled with all the magnetic field lines from the Earth’s highly ionized particles, whereas the other side (facing the Sun) is a combination of ionized particles from both the Earth and the Sun. And this is where the EXPLOSION happened, or more scientifically- a magnetic reconnection. A magnetic reconnection is when particles in highly ionized gas, aka PLASMA, collide and result in a massive, short but highly impactful explosion of electrons spewing out at supersonic speeds. It happens in plasma environments in space and also in fusion labs! Reconnection is responsible for explosive solar events, like solar flares, coronal mass ejections causing disturbances in Earth’s space environment.