After three years of puzzling over a striking “ribbon” of energy and particles discovered by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) at the edge of our Solar System, scientists may be on the verge of cracking the mystery. A three-dimensional diagram of the retention region shown as a “life preserver” around our heliosphere bubble along [continue reading]
The Sun’s visible surface, or photosphere, is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As you move outward from it, you pass through a tenuous layer of hot, ionized gas or plasma called the corona. The corona is familiar to anyone who has seen a total solar eclipse, since it glimmers ghostly white around the hidden Sun. This [continue reading]
Two years ago, CfA astronomers reported the discovery of giant, twin lobes of gamma-ray emission protruding about 50,000 light-years above and below the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, and centered on the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s core. The scientists argued then that the bubbles were produced either by an eruption from [continue reading]
Bochum physicist calculates field strengths in the early Universe The early Universe consisted only of nonmagnetic elements and particles. Just how the magnetic forces came into existence has been researched by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schlickeiser at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. In the journal Physical Review Letters, he describes [continue reading]
The mantles of Earth and other rocky planets are rich in magnesium and oxygen. Due to its simplicity, the mineral magnesium oxide is a good model for studying the nature of planetary interiors. New work from a team led by Carnegie’s Stewart McWilliams studied how magnesium oxide behaves under the extreme conditions deep within [continue reading]
Scientists from the universities of Kiel and Düsseldorf (both Germany) have developed a method to simulate gigantic magnetic fields that normally occur on neutron stars only. The physicists Professor Hartmut Löwen (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) and Professor Michael Bonitz (Kiel University) have now published these results in the journal “Physical Review Letters”. In the article they [continue reading]