China, Europe to send a SMILE into space

A new satellite will soon tell the Earth to "Say 'cheese'!" And the Earth will respond with a SMILE.

Chinese and European scientists are jointly planning a project that will study the Earth's magnetic field from a satellite to study how the field interacts with solar wind.

The European Space Agency and Chinese Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, or SMILE. The project's satellite will be launched in 2021 and operate for three years.