https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. From birth to death, stars generally slow by 100 to 1,000 times their initial rotation rates; in other words, they "spin down." The sun's total angular momentum has declined as material is gradually blown off at the surface as solar wind. By observing this, astronomers have theorized the interaction between magnetic fields and plasma flow to be the most efficient way to spin down stars. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-stars-die.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:00:09 EDT news696493275 The history of Earth is written on the great tablets of tectonic plates. The motions of plates shaped land masses, formed oceans, and created the varied climates and habitats that set the stage for evolution and the diversity of life. But this grand drama begins with a deep mystery: just when did the continental and oceanic plates begin to drift? Did the lithosphere begin to move soon after the formation of Earth 4.5 billion years ago or only in the last billion years? https://phys.org/news/2026-03-planet-history-earth.html Earth Sciences Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:00:05 EDT news693071521 How fast can a galaxy build ordered magnetic fields spanning thousands of light-years? Existing theories say several billion years, but observations of galaxies in our universe imply shorter timescales. In a study published in the Physical Review Letters and highlighted in the Physics magazine, scientists propose an explanation that resolves this contradiction. They say that the collapse of plasma clouds during the formation of galaxies could significantly accelerate the growth of these magnetic fields. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-young-galaxies-grew-magnetic-fields.html Astronomy Wed, 18 Mar 2026 13:00:01 EDT news693052608 Researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, have resolved a long-standing debate about the strength of the moon's magnetic field. For decades, scientists have argued about whether the moon had a strong or weak magnetic field during its early history (3.5–4 billion years ago). Now a new analysis, published in Nature Geoscience, shows that both sides of the debate are effectively correct. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-apollo-moon-reveal-lunar-magnetic.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 25 Feb 2026 19:00:03 EST news691232217 All celestial bodies—planets, suns, even entire galaxies—produce magnetic fields, affecting such cosmic processes as the solar wind, high-energy particle transport, and galaxy formation. Small-scale magnetic fields are generally turbulent and chaotic, yet large-scale fields are organized, a phenomenon that plasma astrophysicists have tried explaining for decades, unsuccessfully. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-velocity-gradients-key-large-scale.html General Physics Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:00:14 EST news688062781 This week, a new analysis of Jupiter's atmosphere estimated that the gas giant has 1.5 times more oxygen than the sun. Researchers in Brazil identified a protein that allows pancreatic cancer to infiltrate nerves and spread early in the course of the disease. And scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School discovered how exercise helps aging muscles regain their ability for self-repair. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-saturday-citations-super-earths-superagers.html Other Sat, 17 Jan 2026 08:50:01 EST news687787314 Earth is fortunate in having a magnetic field: it protects the planet and its life from harmful cosmic radiation. Other planets in our solar system—such as Mars—are constantly bombarded by charged particles that make life difficult. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-simulations-early-earth-liquid-core.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 30 Jul 2025 13:33:13 EDT news673101187 Binary neutron star mergers, cosmic collisions between two very dense stellar remnants made up predominantly of neutrons, have been the topic of numerous astrophysics studies due to their fascinating underlying physics and their possible cosmological outcomes. Most previous studies aimed at simulating and better understanding these events relied on computational methods designed to solve Einstein's equations of general relativity under extreme conditions, such as those that would be present during neutron star mergers. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-simulation-reveals-emergence-jet-binary.html Astronomy Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:15:19 EDT news669287714 Merging neutron stars are excellent targets for multi-messenger astronomy. This modern and still very young method of astrophysics coordinates observations of the various signals from one and the same astrophysical source. When two neutron stars collide, they emit gravitational waves, neutrinos and radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. To detect them, researchers need to add gravitational wave detectors and neutrino telescopes to ordinary telescopes that capture light. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-supercomputer-simulation-reveals-merging-neutron.html Astronomy Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:02:03 EDT news668095321 Like Earth, Mars once had a strong magnetic field that shielded its thick atmosphere from the solar wind. But now only the magnetic imprint remains. What's long baffled scientists, though, is why this imprint appears most strongly in the southern half of the red planet. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-molten-martian-core-red-planet.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 15 Apr 2025 10:11:04 EDT news663930662 A large team of researchers with varied backgrounds at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has found evidence of a weak magnetic field on the moon approximately 2 billion years ago. In their study published in the journal Science Advances, they analyzed rock samples returned by China's Chang'e-5 lunar exploration mission. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-samples-evidence-moon-magnetic-field.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 06 Jan 2025 10:00:00 EST news655379996 Evidence suggests Mars could very well have been teeming with life billions of years ago. Now cold, dry, and stripped of what was once a potentially protective magnetic field, the red planet is a kind of forensic scene for scientists investigating whether Mars was indeed once habitable, and if so, when. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-mars-habitable-thought.html Astrobiology Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:51:04 EDT news649435862 In a new study, scientists have mapped magnetic fields in galaxy clusters, revealing the impact of galactic mergers on magnetic-field structures and challenging previous assumptions about the efficiency of turbulent dynamo processes in the amplification of these fields. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-largest-magnetic-fields-galaxy.html Astronomy Thu, 15 Feb 2024 06:40:01 EST news627128508 Researchers at the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India at IISER Kolkata have discovered a new relationship between the sun's magnetic field and its sunspot cycle, that can help predict when the peak in solar activity will occur. Their work indicates that the maximum intensity of solar cycle 25, the ongoing sunspot cycle, is imminent and likely to occur within a year. The new research appears in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-solar-peak-year.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:51:03 EST news620405461 For decades, scientists have pondered the mystery of the moon's ancient magnetism. Based on analyses of lunar samples, its now-deceased magnetic field may have been active for more than 1.5 billion years—give or take a billion years. Scientists believe it was generated like the Earth's via a dynamo process, whereby the spinning and churning of conductive liquid metal within a rocky planet's core generates a magnetic field. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-magnetic-spacecraft-contamination-extraterrestrial-samples.html Space Exploration Wed, 11 Oct 2023 11:59:56 EDT news616244389 Astronomers have found evidence that some stars boast unexpectedly strong surface magnetic fields, a discovery that challenges current models of how they evolve. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-astronomers-evidence-unusual-stellar-evolution.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Jul 2023 15:58:03 EDT news608828281 The discovery of a rare type of white dwarf star system provides new understanding into stellar evolution. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-discovery-white-dwarf-pulsar-star.html Astronomy Thu, 15 Jun 2023 11:37:07 EDT news606047823 There are several theories about how Earth and its moon were formed, most involving a giant impact. Now scientists at the University of Leeds and the University of Chicago have analyzed the dynamics of fluids and electrically conducting fluids and concluded that Earth must have been magnetized either before the impact or as a result of it. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-magnetism-earth-moon-formation.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 02 Nov 2022 20:00:01 EDT news586623970 On the 50th anniversary of the discovery of a close connection between star formation in galaxies and their infrared and radio radiation, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) have now deciphered the underlying physics. To this end, they used novel computer simulations of galaxy formation with a complete modeling of cosmic rays. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-puzzling-link-star-formation-radio.html Astronomy Wed, 29 Jun 2022 08:50:18 EDT news575711414 When we look out into space, all of the astrophysical objects that we see are embedded in magnetic fields. This is true not only in the neighborhood of stars and planets, but also in the deep space between galaxies and galactic clusters. These fields are weak—typically much weaker than those of a refrigerator magnet—but they are dynamically significant in the sense that they have profound effects on the dynamics of the universe. Despite decades of intense interest and research, the origin of these cosmic magnetic fields remains one of the most profound mysteries in cosmology. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-universe-magnetic-field.html Plasma Physics Wed, 25 May 2022 15:26:33 EDT news572711188 Imagine a ball thrown in the air: it curves up, then down, tracing an arc to a point on the ground some distance away. The path of the ball can be described with a simple mathematical equation, and if you know the equation, you can figure out where the ball is going to land. Biological systems tend to be harder to forecast, but Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman, postdoc in his lab Xiaojie Qiu, and collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine are working on making the path taken by cells as predictable as the arc of a ball. Rather than looking at how cells move through space, they are considering how cells change with time. https://phys.org/news/2022-02-tool-cell-fates-genetic-perturbations.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 01 Feb 2022 11:00:03 EST news562920989 What happens on Earth doesn't stay on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-strong-power-electric-fields-upper.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 30 Nov 2021 03:59:17 EST news557467152 Could solar storms knock out the global internet? Yes, but we don't know when or how it could happen. Mathematician Dr. Geoffrey Vasil has proposed a new understanding of the Sun's convection zone to help. https://phys.org/news/2021-08-solar-puzzle-earth-planet-wide-blackouts.html Astronomy Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:49:32 EDT news547379369 A dynamo mechanism could explain the incredibly strong magnetic fields in white dwarf stars according to an international team of scientists, including a University of Warwick astronomer. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-mechanism-huge-white-dwarf-magnetic.html Astronomy Fri, 30 Apr 2021 10:38:40 EDT news538997785 The universe is filled with magnetic fields. Understanding how magnetic fields are generated and amplified in plasmas is essential to studying how large structures in the universe were formed and how energy is divided throughout the cosmos. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-laser-driven-insights-formation-universe.html Plasma Physics Thu, 11 Mar 2021 16:17:16 EST news534701832 In a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, researchers at the University of Rochester were able to use magnetism to determine, for the first time, when carbonaceous chondrite asteroids—asteroids that are rich in water and amino acids—first arrived in the inner solar system. The research provides data that helps inform scientists about the early origins of the solar system and why some planets, such as Earth, became habitable and were able to sustain conditions conducive for life, while other planets, such as Mars, did not. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-uncover-key-clues-solar-history.html Astronomy Fri, 04 Dec 2020 12:31:22 EST news526307477 A trio of researchers, two with Harvard University, the other the University of Alberta, has found evidence that weather on Saturn and Jupiter may be driven by dramatically different forces than weather on Earth. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Rakesh Kumar Yadav, Moritz Heimpel and Jeremy Bloxham describe computer simulations showing that major weather systems on Jupiter and Saturn might be driven by internal rather than external forces, resulting in outcomes such as the formation of large anticyclones like Jupiter's famous red spot. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-weather-jupiter-saturn-driven-earth.html Astronomy Mon, 16 Nov 2020 09:50:02 EST news524740656 From a massive disk of gas and dust rotating around the sun, the earth and the other seven planets of our solar system once developed alongside their moons. And the same must have happened, scientists believe, for the thousands of extrasolar planets discovered in recent decades. To gain more insight, astrophysicists use computer simulations to investigate the processes at work as planets form from such protoplanetary disks, such as the growth of a planet's mass as well as the formation of its magnetic field. Up until very recently, these two processes—planet development and magnetic field formation—have been separate fields of research and simulated in separate models. But now, Lucio Mayer, Professor of Computational Astrophysics at the University of Zurich and Project Manager at the National Centre of Competence in Research Planets, along with his colleagues Hongping Deng, former Ph.D. student of Mayer, and Henrik Latter, University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, have successfully combined both processes into one simulation for the first time. The results have now been published in the Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-simultaneous-simulation-gravitation-magnetism-protoplanetary.html Astronomy Wed, 08 Apr 2020 08:00:54 EDT news505551650 Magnetars are neutron stars endowed with the strongest magnetic fields observed in the universe, but their origin remains controversial. In a study published in Science Advances, a team of scientists from CEA, Saclay, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris developed a new and unprecedentedly detailed computer model that can explain the genesis of these gigantic fields through the amplification of pre-existing weak fields when rapidly rotating neutron stars are born in collapsing massive stars. The work opens new avenues to understand the most powerful and most luminous explosions of such stars. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-theory-magnetar-formation.html Astronomy Mon, 16 Mar 2020 09:52:05 EDT news503571118 New research lends credence to an unorthodox retelling of the story of early Earth that was first proposed by a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-earth-mantle-core-planet-early.html Earth Sciences Thu, 12 Mar 2020 09:00:58 EDT news503222455