A new study suggests that magnetic reconnection may fuel slow solar winds, which top out at speeds below 500 kilometers per second.
solar wind
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Solar Wind Disconnects Venus’s Magnetotail
Polarity reversals in the solar wind magnetic field disconnect the magnetic field trailing behind Venus, allowing ions from the atmosphere to escape.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Chasing Down the Slow Solar Wind
The Sun's plasma blasts Earth’s magnetosphere at more than a million miles per hour. The fastest pours from holes in the corona, but until recently the source of the "slow" solar wind was a mystery.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Pluto's Interactions with the Solar Wind Are Unique
Space physicists say that Pluto's atmosphere interacts with the solar wind in a never-before-seen hybrid way, one that's both comet-like and planet-like.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysterious Heavy Ion Beams Above Mars Explained
NASA's latest mission to Mars has uncovered the origins of fast-moving streams of particles high above the planet, flowing against the solar wind.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Solar Wind Model Could Improve Space Weather Forecasts
Real-world data drive a simulation that successfully predicts Sun structures and interplanetary solar wind dynamics.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Satellites Test Theory of Magnetic Reconnection
A quartet of satellites flying through Earth's magnetic field measures its interaction with the Sun's and puts a theory about their reconnection to the test.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Sun's Magnetic Field Impacts Earth's Thunderstorms
Lightning strikes are more frequent when Earth encounters a polarity switch in the solar magnetic field.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Refining Solar Wind Models to Better Predict Space Weather
Despite decades of space-based observations of the Sun, scientists still struggle to make precise predictions of the solar wind.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
X Marks the Spot of Magnetic Islands in Space
At the edge of Earth's magnetic field, satellites have found X-shaped fields and fast-moving "islands" of magnetism that could shed light on the physics of solar storms.