No object in the solar system experiences the sun's solar wind more powerfully than Mercury. The planet's magnetic field deflects the sun's stream of electrically charged particles at a distance of only 1,000 kilometers from ...
Planetary Sciences
May 27, 2022
1
309
When magnetic field lines of opposite directions merge, they create explosions that can release massive amounts of energy. On the sun, the merging of opposing field lines causes solar flares and coronal mass ejections, giant ...
General Physics
Apr 28, 2022
0
113
A puzzling process called magnetic reconnection triggers explosive phenomena throughout the universe, creating solar flares and space storms that can take down mobile phone service and electrical power grids. Now scientists ...
Plasma Physics
Apr 22, 2022
53
150
A magnetosphere forms around any magnetized object, such as a planet, that is immersed within a stream of ionized gas, called plasma. Because Earth possesses an intrinsic magnetic field, the planet is surrounded by a large ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 12, 2022
1
133
Solar transition region supersonic downflows (SDs) are downward falling mass flux toward the sunspots. This phenomenon commonly exists above most sunspots. In IRIS spectra, SDs are often observed as strongly redshifted secondary ...
Astronomy
Apr 6, 2022
0
104
A West Virginia University postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy has made a breakthrough in the study of magnetic reconnection, which could prevent space storms from wreaking havoc on the ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 11, 2022
0
455
A joint research team has found the formation of magnetic islands with the twisted structure in the current sheet during the fast magnetic reconnection for the first time.
General Physics
Feb 10, 2022
0
57
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have gained insight into a fundamental process found throughout the universe. They discovered that the magnetic fields threading ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 4, 2022
0
267
In January 1999, scientists observed mysterious motions within a solar flare.
Astronomy
Jan 27, 2022
28
924
What a spectacle a big aurora is, its shimmering curtains and colorful rays of light illuminating a dark sky. Many people refer to aurora as the northern lights (the aurora borealis), but there are southern lights too (the ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 21, 2022
0
109
