When the Earth's and the Sun's magnetic fields meet, they realign in explosive and mysterious reconnections. Data suggest that plasma waves called kinetic Alfvén waves play a key role.
unsolved mysteries
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Using Isotope Fingerprints to Solve a Methane Mystery
Atmospheric methane levels are rising, and isotopic ratios within the greenhouse gas suggest that the tropics may be to blame.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Eliminating Uncertainty One Cloud at a Time
The impact of clouds on climate change has been a scientific mystery for decades. Now researchers are fighting to gain the upper hand.
Posted inNews
Scientists Solve Charon's Red Mystery
Why are Charon's poles dusted with reddish material?
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysteries of the Magnetosphere
Scientists investigate how dipolarization fronts in Earth's protective magnetosphere interact with the environment around them.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Chasing Down the Slow Solar Wind
The Sun's plasma blasts Earth’s magnetosphere at more than a million miles per hour. The fastest pours from holes in the corona, but until recently the source of the "slow" solar wind was a mystery.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Modeling the Effects of Clouds on Climate
New research investigates how mixed-phase cloud partitioning and cloud cover compensate each other in GCMs.
Posted inNews
Astrobiology Hearing Ranges Beyond Life as We Know It
Space research has made strides identifying where extraterrestrial life might reside but not what kind of life, if any, it could be, scientists told Congress last week.
Posted inNews
Birds Ignore Volcano Blast, Puzzle Scientists
When a nearby volcano unexpectedly erupted in the midst of a behavioral study of Andean condors in Argentina, the researchers scrambled to observe disruption to condors' lives. Oddly, there was none.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Newly Discovered Properties of Elusive Gamma Ray Flashes
The properties of terrestrial gamma ray flashes have eluded scientists for years. This new study sheds light on how they originate.