Top three mysteries Smile will solve

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It will give humankind its first complete look at how Earth reacts to streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun.

What makes Smile unique is its ability to collect data on the entire Sun-facing side of Earth in just a few minutes. Thanks to this special skill, the mission will help answer three fundamental questions. Discover them in more depth here.

Follow the mission at esa.int/smile

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

[Image description: In the background of this infographic is an artist impression of the interaction between the Sun and Earth, in the sense that the Sun is sending out particles and the Earth is holding up a shield against them. Three pop-out boxes indicate the top three questions that Smile seeks to solve, with close-up images of the relevant part of the Sun-Earth connection.]