New research from NASA's Cassini spacecraft's up-close Grand Finale orbits shows a surprisingly powerful and dynamic interaction of plasma waves moving from Saturn to its rings and its moon Enceladus. The observations show ...
Space Exploration
Jul 10, 2018
35
938
Sometimes on a dark night near the poles, the sky pulses a diffuse glow of green, purple and red. Unlike the long, shimmering veils of typical auroral displays, these pulsating auroras are much dimmer and less common. While ...
Astronomy
Feb 20, 2018
1
17
Auroras are typically described as slowly shimmering curtains of light illuminating the sky. However, when an explosive aurora known as a breakup occurs, it sometimes leads to a flickering phenomenon. When an aurora flickers, ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 10, 2017
0
8
The space surrounding our planet is full of restless charged particles and roiling electric and magnetic fields, which create waves around Earth. One type of wave, plasmaspheric hiss, is particularly important for removing ...
Space Exploration
Jul 24, 2017
0
18
Space is not empty, nor is it silent. While technically a vacuum, space nonetheless contains energetic charged particles, governed by magnetic and electric fields, and it behaves unlike anything we experience on Earth. In ...
Space Exploration
Jul 17, 2017
8
2659
Throughout the universe, supersonic shock waves propel cosmic rays and supernova particles to velocities near the speed of light. The most high-energy of these astrophysical shocks occur too far outside the solar system to ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 14, 2017
198
308
Physicist Igor Kaganovich at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and collaborators have uncovered some of the physics that make possible the etching of silicon computer chips, which ...
Plasma Physics
Jan 27, 2017
0
20
Researchers working at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility at General Atomics (GA) have created an important new tool for controlling fusion plasmas that are hotter than the sun.
Plasma Physics
Oct 27, 2016
3
45
In a new study researchers at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics have used measurements from NASA's MMS (Magnetospheric MultiScale) satellites to reveal that there are ripples, or surface waves, moving along the surface ...
General Physics
Oct 17, 2016
44
78
A new study by researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, funded by the National Science Foundation, has identified for the first time a process by which the solar wind is heated along extended regions of the Earth's ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 6, 2016
2
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