The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Smile – the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer – aims to form an accurate picture of solar-terrestrial magnetospheric physics.
From its vantage point, Smile will observe the solar wind interaction with the magnetosphere, gathering simultaneous images and video of the dayside magnetopause (where Earth's magnetosphere meets the solar wind, indicated in pink), the polar cusps (a region in each hemisphere where particles from the solar wind have direct access to Earth's ionosphere, indicated in green), and the auroral oval (the region around each geomagnetic pole where auroras most often occur).
The mission will be implemented by ESA's Science Programme and the Chinese National Space Science Centre (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).