Magnetospheric Multiscale animation of small-scale magnetic reconnection May 9, 2018 NASA Spacecraft Discovers New Magnetic Process in Turbulent Space Though close to home, the space immediately around Earth is full of hidden secrets and invisible processes. In a new discovery reported in the journal Nature, scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS — have uncovered a new type of magnetic event in our near-Earth environment by using an innovative technique to squeeze extra information out of the data. Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes in the space — filled with charged particles known as plasma — around Earth. This fundamental process dissipates magnetic energy and propels charged particles, both of which contribute to a dynamic space weather system that scientists want to better understand, and even someday predict, as we do terrestrial weather. Reconnection occurs when crossed magnetic field lines snap, explosively flinging away nearby particles at high speeds. The new discovery found reconnection where it has never been seen before — in turbulent plasma. In a new discovery reported in the journal Nature, scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS — uncovered a new type of magnetic event in our near-Earth environment. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio “In the plasma universe, there are two important phenomena: magnetic reconnection and turbulence,” said Tai Phan, a senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author on the paper. “This discovery bridges these two processes.” Magnetic reconnection has been observed innumerable times in the magnetosphere — the magnetic environment around Earth — but usually under calm conditions. The new event occurred in a region called the magnetosheath, just outside the outer boundary of the magnetosphere, where the solar wind is extremely turbulent. Previously, scientists didn’t know if reconnection even could occur there, as the plasma is highly chaotic in that region. MMS found it does, but on scales much smaller than previous spacecraft could probe. In a turbulent magnetic environment, magnetic field lines become scrambled. As the field lines cross, intense electric currents (shown here as bright regions) form and eventually trigger magnetic reconnection (indicated by a flash), which is an explosive event that releases magnetic energy | Screengrab from a video released by NASA
WASHINGTON: Scientists working with a NASA probe that investigates how the Sun's and Earth's magnetic fields connect and disconnect have uncovered a new type of magnetic event in our near-Earth environment.
Launched in 2015, the Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, consists of four identical spacecraft that orbit around Earth through the dynamic magnetic system surrounding our planet to study a little-understood phenomenon called magnetic reconnection.
Magnetic reconnection is a phenomenon unique to plasma, that is, the mix of positively and negatively charged particles that make up the stars, fill space and account for an estimated 99 per cent of the observable universe.
The new discovery, detailed in the journal Nature, found reconnection where it has never been seen before -- in turbulent plasma. For the study the scientists used an innovative technique to squeeze extra information out of the data.
"In the plasma universe, there are two important phenomena: magnetic reconnection and turbulence," said Tai Phan, a senior fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author on the paper.
"This discovery bridges these two processes," Phan said.
The finding of reconnection in turbulence has implications, for example, for studies on the Sun. It may help scientists understand the role magnetic reconnection plays in heating the inexplicably hot solar corona -- the Sun's outer atmosphere -- and accelerating the supersonic solar wind.
Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes in the space around Earth. This fundamental process dissipates magnetic energy and propels charged particles, both of which contribute to a dynamic space weather system that scientists want to better understand, and even someday predict. Reconnection occurs when crossed magnetic field lines snap, explosively flinging away nearby particles at high speeds.
Magnetic reconnection has been observed innumerable times in the magnetosphere -- the magnetic environment around Earth -- but usually under calm conditions.
The new event occurred in a region called the magnetosheath, just outside the outer boundary of the magnetosphere, where the solar wind is extremely turbulent.
Previously, scientists did not know if reconnection could even occur there, as the plasma is highly chaotic in that region. MMS found it does.
