Magnetosphere tagged posts

The neutron star (red sphere) with its strong magnetic field (white lines) spins around itself nearly 30 times per second injecting energetic electrons in the space region around it. The green and blue shaded regions depict different particle acceleration zones from where the detected photons could originate. The green zone lies in the vicinity of the pulsar’s magnetosphere, whereas the blue zone could be as far as 100,000 km away from the pulsar. Credit: Patricia Carcelén Marco

Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) observatory has found the most energetic pulsed emission radiation ever detected from the neutron star in the center of the supernova of 1054 A.D. ie Crab pulsar. It is the corpse left over when the star that created the Crab nebula exploded as a supernova...

An artist’s concept of Saturn’s magnetosphere based on data from the Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL

These “explosions” are produced in a process known as magnetic reconnection, something well studied at Earth and is an important part of Space Weather, involved in energising the radiation belts and producing displays of the Northern lights. Space Physicists led by Lancaster University used data to show that Cassini had passed through the region at Saturn where magnetic reconnection was occurring, which has never before been observed.

One of the mysteries this gives us clues to answering is how Saturn’s magnetic bubble, known as its magnetosphere, gets rid of gas from Saturn’s tiny icy moon Enceladus...