Astronomers from CSIRO and Curtin University have used pulsars to probe the Milky Way’s magnetic field. Working with colleagues in Europe, Canada, and South Africa, they have published the most precise catalogue of measurements towards mapping our Galaxy’s magnetic field in 3-D. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-11-galaxy-magnetic-field.html…
Tag: magnetic field
Image: Giant magnetic ropes in a galaxy’s halo
This image of the “Whale Galaxy” (NGC 4631), made with the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), reveals hair-like filaments of the galaxy’s magnetic field protruding above and below the galaxy’s disk. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-11-image-giant-magnetic-ropes-galaxy.html…
NASA rockets study why tech goes haywire near poles
Each second, 1.5 million tons of solar material shoot off of the Sun and out into space, traveling at hundreds of miles per second. Known as the solar wind, this incessant stream of plasma, or electrified gas, has pelted Earth for more than 4 billion years. Thanks to our planet’s magnetic field, it’s mostly deflected away. But head far enough north, and…
Scientists confirm Europa’s water vapor geysers … maybe
New observations appear to confirm the existence of water vapor geysers on Europa. The findings are tantalizing, but some scientists are not convinced yet. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/europa-water-vapor-geysers-goddard…
Listen to Earth’s magnetic song
Scientists have created a recording of the eerie ‘song’ that Earth sings when it’s hit by a solar storm. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/listen-to-earths-solar-storm-magnetic-song…
Voyager 2 sends back insights on interstellar space
Voyager 2 left the realm of the sun’s influence a year ago today, becoming the 2nd craft ever to do so. This week, the journal Nature Astronomy published 5 new papers describing what Voyager 2 has been seeing on its journey into the unknown. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/voyager-2-new-published-papers-boundary-interstellar-space…
An overlooked piece of the solar dynamo puzzle
A previously unobserved mechanism is at work in the Sun’s rotating plasma: a magnetic instability, which scientists had thought was physically impossible under these conditions. The effect might even play a crucial role in the formation of the Sun’s magnetic field, say researchers from Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the University of Leeds and the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) in the…
New telescope to ‘see inside’ hot Jupiter exoplanets
Exoplanets – worlds orbiting distant suns – are very, very far away. Astronomers are learning what some might look like, and what’s in their atmospheres. Soon – for the first time – a new telescope will be able to “see inside” some exoplanets. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nenufar-radio-telescope-magnetic-fields-hot-jupiter-exoplanets…
Dynamic pattern of skyrmions observed
Cu2OSeO3 is a material with unusual magnetic properties. Magnetic spin vortices known as skyrmions are formed within a certain temperature range when in the presence of a small external magnetic field. Currently, moderately low temperatures of around 60 Kelvin (-213 degrees Celsius) are required to stabilise their phase, but it appears possible to shift this temperature range to room temperature. The…
US Navy Files Patent For Compact Fusion Reactor
Bodhammer shares a report from Popular Mechanics: The U.S. Navy has jumped into the game by filing a patent for a compact fusion reactor, according to exclusive reporting by The War Zone. The success of the device, developed by researcher Salvatore Cezar Pais of the Naval Air Warfare Center — Aircraft Division, relies on a part called a dynamic fusor. According…