Space physics articles within Nature Physics

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  • News & Views |

    Tides not only affect ocean dynamics but also influence the Earth’s magnetosphere. Satellite observations have now revealed evidence of tidal effects in the Earth’s plasmasphere correlated with Moon phases.

    • Balázs Heilig

  • News & Views |

    Numerical simulations and spacecraft observations elucidate how ultralow-frequency waves transmit through collisionless shocks, which could not only advance our understanding of shocks but also have implications for space weather modelling.

    • Hui Zhang
    •  & Terry Z. Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Earth’s bow shock results from the interaction of the solar wind with the terrestrial magnetic field. With global numerical simulations and spacecraft observations, the transmission of fast magnetosonic waves through the bow shock is revealed.

    • L. Turc
    • , O. W. Roberts
    •  & U. Ganse

  • Letter |

    The solar wind affects the magnetosphere, but whether this holds true for solar flares was unclear. By combining geospace modelling with observations, solar flares are shown to influence the dynamics of the magnetosphere and its ionosphere coupling.

    • Jing Liu
    • , Wenbin Wang
    •  & Frederick Wilder

  • Letter |

    Magnetic reconnection in the near-Earth magnetotail is observed to power a space storm, although suppression of magnetic reconnection caused by the Earth’s magnetic dipole was expected close to Earth.

    • Vassilis Angelopoulos
    • , Anton Artemyev
    •  & Yukinaga Miyashita

  • Letter |

    The first observational evidence of plasma heating through the dissipation of Alfvén-wave energy in tenuous regions of solar magnetism provides fresh insight into heating processes in the solar atmosphere, and in other magnetohydrodynamic systems.

    • Samuel D. T. Grant
    • , David B. Jess
    •  & Rebecca L. Hewitt

  • News & Views |

    Solar eruptions are triggered by magnetic stress building up in the corona due to the motion of the Sun's dense surface. New observations reveal that these eruptions can, in turn, induce the rotational motion of sunspots.

    • Guillaume Aulanier

  • Article |

    Substorms in the Earth’s magnetosphere lead to bright aurorae, releasing energy into the surrounding ionosphere. Ground- and space-based observations now reveal how that energy is dissipated and controlled by strong electric currents.

    • E. V. Panov
    • , W. Baumjohann
    •  & M. V. Kubyshkina

  • Article |

    Processes in (space) plasmas occur on different levels — fluid, ion and electron. Now, from satellite data and simulations, an energy-transfer mechanism between the fluid and ion scales is reported: fluid velocity shear is converted into ion heating.

    • T. W. Moore
    • , K. Nykyri
    •  & A. P. Dimmock

  • News & Views |

    Two observational studies published in Nature Physics provided early evidence for the mechanisms of magnetic reconnection in three dimensions and in a turbulent medium.

    • Ellen Zweibel

  • Editorial |

    As we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, there is plenty to look back on and even more to look forward to.

  • Commentary |

    What is it about the Hubble Space Telescope that so captivates its users and the public at large? I offer my personal views on this iconic telescope.

    • Luis C. Ho

  • Commentary |

    A new NASA mission will reveal the electron-scale physics of magnetic reconnection, a process that connects our planet to the rest of the Universe.

    • Thomas Earle Moore
    • , James L. Burch
    •  & Roy B. Torbert

  • Commentary |

    On astronomical scales, gravity is the engine of the Universe. The launch of LISA Pathfinder this year to prepare the technology to detect gravitational waves will help us 'listen' to the whole Universe.

    • Karsten Danzmann

  • News & Views |

    The successful formation of self-generated magnetic fields in the lab using large-scale, high-power lasers opens the door to a better understanding of some of the most extreme astrophysical processes taking place in the Universe.

    • Francisco Suzuki-Vidal

  • News & Views |

    High-cadence images link the phenomena required for particle acceleration at the Sun. A plasmoid-driven shock wave accelerates electrons in intermittent bursts.

    • Edward W. Cliver

  • Article |

    A combination of measurements from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and radiospectroscopy data from the Nançay Radioheliograph now details the mechanism that connects coronal mass ejections from the sun and the acceleration of particles to relativistic speeds. A spatial and temporal correlation between a coronal ‘bright front’ and radio emissions associated with electron acceleration demonstrates the fundamental relationship between the two.

    • Eoin P. Carley
    • , David M. Long
    •  & Peter T. Gallagher

  • Letter |

    The Van Allen radiation belts are two rings of charged particles encircling the Earth. Therefore the transient appearance in 2012 of a third ring between the inner and outer belts was a surprise. A study of the ultrarelativistic electrons in this middle ring reveals new physics for particles above 2 MeV.

    • Yuri Y. Shprits
    • , Dmitriy Subbotin
    •  & Kyung-Chan Kim

  • News & Views |

    Observations from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory provide compelling evidence for the central role of magnetic reconnection in solar flares.

    • Terry G. Forbes

  • Letter |

    Extreme ultraviolet and X-ray imaging of a solar flare with unprecedented clarity now provide visual evidence that magnetic reconnection plays a fundamental role in generating solar flares. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is able to observe a ’cold’ plasma moving into the reconnection point and the simultaneous acceleration of a hot-flare-heated plasma away from it.

    • Yang Su
    • , Astrid M. Veronig
    •  & Weiqun Gan

  • Letter |

    Magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere accelerates electrons. And yet energetic electrons are not created during reconnection in the solar wind. Observations from the Cluster spacecraft now suggest that electron acceleration is caused by repeated bursts of plasma flow, which only occur in situations where the magnetic reconnection is unsteady.

    • H. S. Fu
    • , Yu. V. Khotyaintsev
    •  & M. André

  • Research Highlights |

    • May Chiao

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