THEMIS Shows How Substorms Are Triggered
	The dynamics of explosive magnetic substorms, responsible for generating the aurora borealis and for the interferences affecting both satellites in Earth's orbit and electric and electronic devices on the surface, have now been revealed by NASA's five THEMIS spacecrafts, solving a mystery that has been a center of debate for the past three decades or so. "We discovered what sparks the magnificent light show of t ... [read more >>]
	25 July 2008, 02:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Cry Receptors Allow Flies to See Magnetic Fields
	Humans have been fascinated for centuries by the capability of migratory animals to navigate the globe, sometimes even returning to exactly the same spot from which they left, after retracing more than 15,000 kilometers. The markers that guide them in their voyage are a mystery even today, although most researchers believe that it may be possible that these animals are able to see the magnetic field generated by the Earth. But ... [read more >>]
	23 July 2008, 10:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Young Galaxies Also Have Powerful Magnetic Fields
	The general belief amongst astrophysicists is that the magnetic field of a galaxy evolves simultaneously with the galaxy, slowly building up in time. New observations of the distant universe on the other hand, appear to suggest that this is not quite true and that young galaxies also possess powerful magnetic fields that develop in the early stages of galaxy evolution. "The magnetic fields in these galaxies were very stro ... [read more >>]
	17 July 2008, 02:51GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

One Step Closer to Bringing the Sun on Earth
	An important step towards the creation of the first commercial nuclear fusion reactor has been taken last week as the South Korean authorities revealed that the KSTAR reactor, short for Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Reactor, conducted its first experiment by producing a sustained field of super-hot plasma. The KSTAR reactor is part of a series of pilot devices expected to demonstrate that nuclear fusion reactions can be sustained ... [read more >>]
	15 July 2008, 07:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Gamma-ray Burst Afterglows Move from Bright to Brighter
	Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest and most powerful type of electromagnetic radiation that can be emitted in the universe in the outcome of a violent stellar explosion, whose afterglow remains extremely bright up to several hours after the occurrence of the event that generated it. A new study found that afterglows determined by short gamma-ray bursts are in fact brighter than typical ones. According to current models, gamma- ... [read more >>]
	09 July 2008, 03:42GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mercury Got Smaller Still
	Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system, but one thing is certain: it wasn't always this small. At least, that's what the data collected by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft during the beginning of this year reveals. In the early history of the solar system, when Mercury was much warmer than it is today, it could have had a diameter bigger by at least 1.6 kilometers. Now, scientists say that the same cooling effect whic ... [read more >>]
	05 July 2008, 04:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Planet's Magnetic Field Varies Much Faster Than Expected
	It is widely known that the Earth's magnetic field is varying in strength periodically and has reversed poles several hundred times in the past 4.6 billion years, since our planet exists. However, new measurements show that the changes take place much more rapidly than is has been previously predicted, especially in certain regions near the surface where the magnetic field now appears to be weakening fast. "What is so surpris ... [read more >>]
	01 July 2008, 06:09GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Relays Work
	Relays are a type of electrical switches that are controlled through an electrical circuit, separate from that of the actual switch. Typical relays are mostly operated through an electromagnet exerting a magnetic field on a mechanical actuator. Nevertheless, advancements in the semiconductor industry during the last decades also resulted in the creation of solid-state relays, which have no moving parts, therefore do not wear out nor do the ... [read more >>]
	14 June 2008, 06:14GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sensor Measures Tiny Magnetic Field Fluctuations, Ignores Larger Ones
	Measuring small variations in weak magnetic fields can prove rather difficult at times, especially when other stronger magnetic fields are present. Take for example the magnetic sensors used in the automotive industry. They are used to measure a whole range of parameters, including temperature variations, minute air currents or small magnetic fields. The position of the seats and the mirror, for example, are also tracked and adjusted with ... [read more >>]
	09 June 2008, 06:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Scientists Discover New Class of Superconductors
	It was first discovered in 1911 during experiments with mercury cooled at temperatures close to absolute zero and nearly a century later, superconductivity still manages to baffle the minds of researchers. Scientists from the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University recently discovered a new superconducting material with properties that make it ideal for applications in the field of MRI machines, superconducting ... [read more >>]
	02 June 2008, 04:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Electromagnets Work
	An electromagnet is a device used to generate a magnetic field with the help of an electric current. The principle that electromagnets work by is used in a wide range of electric and electronic devices such as electric motors, solenoids, tape drives and even speakers and microphones. The simplest electromagnet you can build consists of a simple metal wire through which electric current is being circulated. But before we get in ... [read more >>]
	24 May 2008, 07:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

SRON Team Finds Mysterious Magnetar
	The star was in fact known for a long time to be a magnetar, albeit SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research astronomers have only recently discovered that it emits a strange high energy X-ray beam, sweeping across the surrounding medium as the star revolves around its axis. "I was looking for new sources of high energy X-rays on a celestial chart, made using the space telescope INTEGRAL. To our surprise, at the edg ... [read more >>]
	22 May 2008, 11:05GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Brightest Burst in the Universe Caused by a Humble Red Dwarf
	On April 25, a red dwarf star in the EV Lacertae constellation, known as Lacerta, ejected a massive solar flare equivalent to about a thousand solar flares emitted by the Sun. It was the brightest burst of light created by a normal star ever seen in the universe. The emission was first detected by NASA's Wind satellite, followed two minutes later by the Swift X-ray Space Telescope. After the initial burst of light in the visible spect ... [read more >>]
	20 May 2008, 02:42GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Magnetite Deposits May Hide Martian Life
	Magnetite is a naturally occurring compound on Earth and some quantities can even be produced by bacteria on our planet. Considering that magnetism can be detected relatively easy with the help of instruments produced with the current technology, a future mission to the Red Planet could find and return magnetite mineral back to Earth in order to be studied for any evidence of bacteria or other life forms similar to terrestrial magnetite pr ... [read more >>]
	09 May 2008, 04:59GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mercury's Magnetic Field Generated by Iron 'Snow'
	Mercury is the smallest, most mysterious and closest planet to the Sun. In fact this so called 'mystery' is associated to Mercury also being the least studied planet in the solar system, which may seem kind of strange given the fact that it is relatively close to Earth as compared to the other planets beyond Mars' orbit. The first spacecraft to visit Mercury was NASA's Mariner 10 which, after three fly-bys during the 19 ... [read more >>]
	08 May 2008, 02:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Brushless DC Motors Work
	Brushless DC electric motors are a design variation derived from the old brushed electric motors except that the relative motion of the rotor and the stator is reversed. To understand how this is done, one must first understand the basic construction and operation of a brushed DC electric motor. Typical DC motors imply the use of two magnetic field generation systems. One is placed on the rotor, or the part that is rotating, and the other ... [read more >>]
	05 May 2008, 09:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Electromagnetic Coils Work
	Electromagnetic coils, most commonly known as inductors, are amongst the simplest electric and electronic components. They basically consist of a simple metal electrically insulated wire looped into a cylindrical, toroidal or even disk-like shape, with the role of providing inductance in an electric circuit. Inductance is an electrical property characteristic to electromagnetic coils opposing the flow of current through the circuit. < ... [read more >>]
	30 April 2008, 06:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA's Polar Mission Ends with Broken Heart
	After a mission of twelve years to study the Aurora Borealis phenomenon the Polar satellite has now produced its final image, "The Broken Heart", as NASA researchers named it, a visible-light photograph of the lights generated during the interactions between solar wind, Earth's magnetic field and the upper atmosphere. The Polar satellite was launched into space on February 24, 1996 and was originally scheduled for a two year ... [read more >>]
	29 April 2008, 07:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Unexpected Signature Found in Aurora Borealis
	Aurora Borealis, most commonly known as the Northern Lights, is created when cosmic rays – solar wind in special – interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and the atmosphere in order to determine light emissions in the gas atoms located in the upper layers of the atmosphere. In the middle of the 20th century, Robert Duncan, an Australian researcher, discovered that light emitted by the aurora borealis could be polarized. However these emi ... [read more >>]
	26 April 2008, 01:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Researchers Discover new Quantum State of Matter
	Once it was thought that the quantum Hall effect is experienced in materials under the influence of external magnetic fields, albeit Princeton University researchers revealed that it may also be experienced in bulk bismuth-antimony crystal without any interference from magnetic fields. The discovery could possibly lead to the creation of quantum or 'spintronic' computing devices, and other electronic technology advancem ... [read more >>]
	25 April 2008, 10:40GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Unveil the Workings of Supermassive Black Hole Particle Jets
	Supermassive black holes are mostly found in galactic nuclei, ejecting matter in the form of particle jets at relativistic speeds during the 'feeding' process. According to theory, these particle jets are accelerated to these speeds by tightly-twisted magnetic fields generated in the close proximity of the black hole. However, confirming this theory has proved rather problematic until now. National Ratio Astronomy Obser ... [read more >>]
	24 April 2008, 02:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Effects of Earth's Magnetotail on the Moon
	Earth’s powerful magnetic field is shaped by the solar wind into a tear-like elongated structure, enveloping the planet. This so called magnetotail spans well beyond the orbit of the Moon, meaning that the Moon passes through it once a month, during the full moon phase, determining lunar dust storms and electrostatic discharges on the surface of our natural satellite. "If the Moon is full, it is inside the magnetotail. The Moon en ... [read more >>]
	18 April 2008, 08:33GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Find the Source of Solar Wind
	The solar wind originates from the Sun of course, everybody knows that, but not many can explain how solar wind is actually generated, at least not in an accurate manner. Yesterday, a team of researchers from the University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, led by professor Loise Harra, presented their new findings related to the solar wind at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting, ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2008, 06:28GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Magnetic Sun
	It is well known that the atmosphere of the Sun is extremely dynamic, violent and excessively hot, ejecting massive quantities of matter into the surrounding space, basically every minute. But what drives and, more important, how these processes are driven remain mostly a mystery. Current and past observations with JAXA's Hinode Solar Observatory revealed that the source of these solar flares is the massive magnetic fields t ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2008, 05:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hotter is Better for Solar Flares
	Most of us will probably never understand the true power of the Sun. Three thousand degrees Celsius or three million degrees do not make any difference to the average person, because one could never experience temperatures of this magnitude. And even if s/he experienced, s/he would never share his experience with anybody afterwards. Solar flares are extremely hot, exceeding temperatures of several tens of millions of degrees Celsius; howev ... [read more >>]
	03 April 2008, 05:10GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Earth's Magnetic Field Similar to That of Jupiter
	Jupiter and Earth, two extremely different planets. One has a solid surface, the other has no surface at all; one is a rocky planet, the other, a massive gas giant, and so on. However, this doesn't mean that the two are totally different from one another. It looks like Jupiter and the Earth share one key feature: they have similar magnetic fields. Just as radio waves accelerate electrons inside Jupiter's magnetic field, ... [read more >>]
	10 March 2008, 05:30GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mars and Venus More Alike Than Previously Thought
	Have you ever noticed how both Mars and Venus are ranked as planets rather similar to Earth, but never to each other? The ESA believes it's about time it put an end to this situation and gave the task to both the Mars Express and the Venus Express, to conduct simultaneous probing investigations to establish whether or not the two planets can be compared with each other. Well, at least in the matter of the atmosphere, that is. When ... [read more >>]
	05 March 2008, 10:32GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Spring is Here! So is Aurora Borealis
	What better evidence for the coming of spring than the appearance of the aurora borealis, or most commonly known as the northern lights? Well, at least astrologically speaking, in the context of ever wobbling clime. For some unknown reason, it seems that the aurora borealis phenomenon takes place only during the spring time, or in the weeks around the vernal equinox. One thing is for certain though, aurora borealis is determi ... [read more >>]
	05 March 2008, 03:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA to Improve Space Weather Forecast
	Following the steps of their fellow colleagues form the European Space Agency, NASA also has in plan to implement a program to predict the space weather determined by the activity of the closest star to Earth - the Sun. Lying just over 150 million kilometer from Earth, the Sun, with a diameter about 100 times that of our planet, provides us with one of the most important ingredients to the appearance and evolution of life: light. ... [read more >>]
	04 March 2008, 07:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Massive X-ray Emission Detected in Eta Carinae!
	It has been long predicted that solar wind interactions would be able to generate massive amounts of X-ray radiation, however until now astronomers haven't been able to detect such emissions. Now, they have revealed what seems to be a large X-ray emission coming from the Eta Carinae binary system, determined by the collision of solar winds created by the two massive stars in the respective system. The hypergiant binary was only disco ... [read more >>]
	03 March 2008, 08:32GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Scientist get Insight into Magnetic Flip
	It's no secret now. Planets, stars may vary their magnetic fields so severely that could eventually reverse poles. Magnetic north becomes south and vice versa. Geologic evidences strongly suggest that even our planet could have reversed its poles a number of times in the past. The Sun's magnetic field orientation slightly changes its direction every eleven years, time interval directly related to the solar activity, sin ... [read more >>]
	27 February 2008, 03:34GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Scientists Present New Theory for Earth's Iron Core
	Earth, like all planets in the solar system, has an inner most core, in the shape of a sphere measuring about 1,200 kilometers, consisting of a solid mass of iron, responsible for generating our planet's powerful magnetic field. Nonetheless, while implying measurements of its structure with the help of seismic waves, scientists have proven that they travel with great speeds in certain directions. For example, seismic waves seem to hav ... [read more >>]
	08 February 2008, 11:24GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn's Vacuum Cleaner
	It is a well known fact that Saturn's ring E is interacting with the moon Enceladus, and might have been created by drawing material ejected through cryo-volcanism phenomenons taking place of the surface of the moon. However, new observations conducted by NASA's Cassini orbiter reveal that icy plumes of material could also be delivered to the most distant ring in relation to Enceladus, ring A, situated 100,000 kilometer ... [read more >>]
	07 February 2008, 03:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Mercury's Magnetic Field Packs Quite a Punch
	Our planet's magnetic field is strong enough to protect the surface from deadly radiation coming from the Sun, and, without it, the Earth would probably be pretty much dead. The Earth is being daily bombarded with massive amounts of solar wind, still Mercury receives even more radiation considering the fact that it is two thirds closer to the Sun than our planet, and somehow manages to repel much of the solar wind back into ... [read more >>]
	31 January 2008, 05:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA Celebrates Fifty Years of Solar System Exploration
	Fifty years have passed since the launch of the third artificial satellite into space, and the first ever American satellite. Commonly known as the Explorer-1 program, the satellite 1958 Alpha liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force State on January 31st, 1958, thus announcing the beginning of a long series of space launches of the United States. The program started in the wake of the launch of the two soviet satellites, Sputnik 1 and 2 ... [read more >>]
	07 January 2008, 08:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Saturn Guards Closely Its Secrets
	The most elusive constant related to the planet that has not been yet accurately determined is its spin rotation, as the gas giant is covered with a thick layer of clouds, which prevents most of the instruments aboard the Cassini probe to make detailed observations. Thus, most of the methods used to measure the spin rotations of gas giants use indirect observations of the magnetic field generated in the core of the planet. As they passe ... [read more >>]
	13 December 2007, 06:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Power Behind Aurora Borealis
	The beautiful northern lights, or Aurora Borealis as they are commonly known, are usually triggered in the northern regions of the Earth, as electrically charged particles originating in the solar winds are captured by the planet's magnetic field and drawn towards the general regions of the poles. These electrically charged particles interact with the molecules in the atmosphere and generate light over a large color spectrum through a ... [read more >>]
	12 December 2007, 06:39GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Material Changes Shape with Magnetic Field
	The new developed material is known from previous experiments, but it has not been very effective; however, it has been discovered that porous structures inside the material greatly amplifies the shape changing effect, which could probably be used to construct new precision valves out of a cheap, lightweight material or pumps, without any mechanical moving parts. The nickel-manganese-gallium alloy foam contracts in one direction and ex ... [read more >>]
	07 December 2007, 11:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Magnetic Fields Trigger Violent Solar Winds
	The solar wind represents an emission from the Sun in the form of electrically charged particles, mostly hydrogen, which fills the void space all around the star. Scientists say that these deadly waves of radiation blowing through the whole solar system at speeds as high as 1.6 million kilometers per hour are triggered by powerful magnetic activity on the Sun's surface. Though the mechanism that determines the solar winds remained ... [read more >>]
	07 December 2007, 03:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia