In 2017, a NASA mission detected an unusual storm in Earth’s “tail of the magnetic field.”
He Earth’s magnetic field projects a tail, A long shadow follows the planet as the solar wind hits it. This extension is called Magnetic tail, a region affected by magnetic storms, It is precisely in this region that scientists have discovered a strange storm.
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A strange storm in the tail of the magnetic field
He The Southwest Research Institute is investigating this unusual phenomenon In the tail region of the Earth, using data from the mission Magnetosférica Multiscale (MMS) de la NASA. Scientists They study substorms, fast disturbances that release energy and cause auroras. These substorms are part of the elongated region of the Earth’s magnetosphere, facing away from the Sun.
For MMS studied the boundary between the Earth’s magnetic field and the solar wind, Looking for signs of magnetic reconnection, when magnetic field lines merge, separate and reconnect, explosively converting magnetic energy into heat and kinetic energy.
Seven years ago, in 2017, The mission looked for signs of reconnection in Earth’s magnetic tail. However, it did not detect the normal signs of a substorm This is usually accompanied by reconnection such as strong currents and disturbances in the magnetic field. A substorm should manifest itself with violent currents and magnetic field fluctuations, but They found no evidence for any of these characteristics.
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Scientists will monitor the unusual storm
Los Scientists will compare observed magnetic reconnections by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS).n Reconstructions developed by the Community Integrated Modeling Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. With this, They hope to solve the mystery by understanding what happened to the observed unusual substorm.
Dr. Andy Marshall.
The The MMS mission consists of four satellites launched in 2015 The Atlas V rocket probes the Earth’s magnetosphere. This zone, the region dominated by the planet’s magnetic field, It continues to burn with magnetic reconnection.
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