Crack discovered in Earth's magnetic shield
The GRAPES-3 muon telescope recorded a burst of galactic cosmic rays of about 20 GeV, on 22 June 2015 lasting for two hours. The burst occurred when a giant cloud of plasma ejected from the solar corona, and moving with a speed of about 2.5 million kilometers per hour struck our planet, causing a severe compression of Earth's magnetosphere from 11 to 4 times the radius of Earth. It triggered a severe geomagnetic storm that generated aurora borealis, and radio signal blackouts in many high latitude countries. Ref. Source 1r.
Discovery of a source of fast magnetic reconnection
The source of the acceleration of a common type of magnetic reconnection has now been described by scientists. Magnetic reconnection is a universal process that triggers solar flares and northern lights and can disrupt cell phone service and fusion experiments. Ref. Source 3c.
I hope that this discovery will help scientist make better predictions on weather and even space weather to help understand how it all connects to make everything better. It should help us improve fusion and make it easier to develop and achieve.
Muon magnet's moment has arrived. On May 31, the 50-foot-wide superconducting electromagnet at the center of the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab saw its first beam of muon particles from Fermilab's accelerators, kicking off a three-year effort to measure just what happens to those particles when placed in a stunningly precise magnetic field. The answer could rewrite scientists' picture of the universe and how it works. Source 1z.
Earth's magnetic field 'simpler than we thought'. Scientists have identified patterns in the Earth's magnetic field that evolve on the order of 1,000 years, providing new insight into how the field works and adding a measure of predictability to changes in the field not previously known. Source 5t.
Nickel is crucial for Earth's magnetic field. Earth's hot core, consisting mainly of iron, is responsible for the 'dynamo effect,' which creates a magnetic field. But with iron alone, this effect cannot be explained. A team of researchers has shown that the theory of the geodynamo has to be revised. It is crucial for the dynamo effect that the earth's core contains up to 20 percent nickel -- a metal, which under extreme conditions behaves quite differently from iron. Source 2u.