Technicians in Florida installed nine white solid rocket motors to the outside of the Delta II rocket's first stage. Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
The Mission
THEMIS is a mission to investigate what causes auroras in the Earth's atmosphere to dramatically change from slowly shimmering waves of light to wildly shifting streaks of color. Discovering what causes auroras to change will provide scientists with important details on how the planet's magnetosphere works and the important Sun-Earth connection.