Mysterious electron acceleration explained by Earth's magnetotail
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 16:10
in Astronomy & Space
A mysterious phenomenon detected by space probes has finally been explained, thanks to a massive computer simulation that was able to precisely alig n with details of spacecraft observations. The simulation shows that an active region in Earth's magnetotail, where "reconnection" events take place in the magnetic field, is roughly 1,000 times larger than had been thought.