The magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding a planet where the magnetic field of the planet dominates the movement of charged particles, primarily from the solar wind—a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun. For Earth, the magnetosphere is a crucial shield that protects the planet from the solar wind’s potentially damaging effects. When charged particles from the sun collide with the Earth’s magnetosphere, they can cause phenomena such as the auroras (the Northern and Southern Lights), which are visible near the magnetic poles. The shape and size of the magnetosphere can vary significantly in response to changes in the solar wind. Understanding the magnetosphere is important not only for learning more about planetary protection from solar radiation but also for ensuring the safety of satellites and other space technologies that operate within this region.
Using NASA’s MMS mission data, SwRI explores unusual substorm events in Earth’s magnetotail to better understand magnetic reconnection and its effects on the global magnetosphere….
A collaborative study by the University of Oxford and MIT has uncovered a 3.7-billion-year-old magnetic field record from Greenland, demonstrating that Earth’s ancient magnetic field…
What Is Earth’s Magnetosphere? Enveloping our planet and protecting us from the fury of the Sun is a giant bubble of magnetism called the magnetosphere….
Phenomena called “Steve” and “picket fence” are masquerading as auroras, graduate student argues. The shimmering green, red, and purple curtains of the northern and southern…
Vlasiator, a supercomputer model for simulating near-Earth space, has revealed that plasma eruptions in near-Earth space are influenced by both magnetic reconnection and kinetic instabilities….
Earth’s magnetic environment is filled with a symphony of sound that we cannot hear. All around our planet, ultralow-frequency waves compose a cacophonous operetta portraying…
NASA’s Electrojet Explorer Mission Passes Critical Development Milestone NASA’s EZIE mission has passed a critical review and remains on track for a launch next year….
Models capture how solar wind charge exchange events are observed. Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used numerical methods to model the variations observed in…
Earth is surrounded by a system of magnetic fields, called the magnetosphere, which is essential to life on Earth. However, the magnetic field isn’t something…
First experimental measurement of pure electron outflows associated with magnetic reconnection driven by electron dynamics in laser-produced plasmas. Magnetic reconnections in laser-produced plasmas have been…
While volcanic eruptions and earthquakes serve as immediate reminders that Earth’s interior is anything but peaceful, there are also other, more elusive, dynamic processes taking…
The Science New experiments have revealed the source of the aurora borealis. Alfvén waves accelerating electrons under conditions similar to those seen in the Earth’s…
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. Scientists…
Experimental platform combines Large Plasma Device with lasers, magnetic dipoles; reveals insights about Earth’s shield against solar wind. A magnetosphere forms around any magnetized object,…
NASA’s Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites mission, or TRACERS mission, has passed a critical mission review on March 31, 2022. The mission now…
Strange things happen in Earth’s atmosphere at high latitudes. Around local noon, when the Sun is at its highest point, a funnel-shaped gap in our…
Micro-Scale Current Sheets Unleash Macro-Scale Space Weather Scientists discover new physics missing from existing models of magnetic reconnection. While movies show Earth as existing in…
Among the four rocky planets in our solar system, you could say that Earth’s “magnetic” personality is the envy of her interplanetary neighbors. When solar…