NASA has just detected for the first time in history a magnetic “switchback” near Earth. A kind of whip that had only been seen in the surroundings of the sun, but apparently it also happens near our planet and it has the scientific world fascinated.
The finding was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, and it has put into question many of the theories we know about the magnetosphere, the solar wind and even the interruptions that affect our satellites.
But do not worry, we are going to tell you everything NASA has discovered so that you will have no doubt about what we are talking about when you finish reading the article!
Ok, but… what is a magnetic switchback?
Imagine a rope that should always go in a straight line… and suddenly it gives a whip, twists on itself and momentarily changes direction. That is a switchback.
In space physics, we talk about a sudden turn in the magnetic field lines, as if something had grabbed a section of the field and thrown it backward with force.
And as we told you, it was something we had only seen near the sun, and associated with very energetic (and violent) processes of magnetic reconnection, but now MMS (the spacecraft in charge of the mission) discovered a zigzag at the boundary where the solar wind and our magnetosphere collide, the natural shield that protects us from charged particles.
MMS, the mission
The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) has spent years studying how Earth’s magnetic field behaves, but it was something that until now nobody could imagine. And it managed to see these currents because MMS can measure three-dimensional changes in milliseconds, and they are recorded in its system almost with surgical precision.
How did they detect it?
The instruments saw:
- a sudden change in the direction of the magnetic field,
- energetic particles being fired,
- and clear signs of magnetic reconnection between “open” lines of the solar wind and “closed” lines of Earth’s field.
Why is this discovery so important?
Because until now it was thought that this phenomenon only happened inside the sun or near it, but now we know that our magnetosphere is much more dynamic than we believed and that we also share energetic processes with the sun!
This way, we can study dangerous phenomena without sending spacecraft to extreme zones, and they will be able to anticipate satellite failures, errors in GPS and possible interferences with aviation communications and electric grids.
But everything will depend on how these magnetic distortions really behave!
Magnetic reconnection
As we said before, this is formed when two field lines with opposite directions break and reconnect releasing energy all at once.
So, we are talking about how the lines of the solar wind (magnetosheath) collided with closed lines of Earth’s field, and caused an unexpected whip with multiple accelerated particles.
And this same process is what drives solar storms and coronal mass ejections, but now we know that it also happens inside the magnetic bubble that surrounds us.
And what does all this mean for our technological future?
The technological future has as its main fear that the world “turns off,” but if we know how to control these currents, we will be able to avoid problems and distortions in navigation signals, we will be able to work to improve satellite instruments or protect our systems from solar storms!
NASA does not stop discovering super interesting things and makes us see how little we still know about our world and space, it is all so incredible that we do not know what the next discovery will be!