MMS TurbulentMagne to Sheath NASA (IMAGE)

University of Maryland

MMS TurbulentMagne to Sheath NASA

Caption

In this visualization, as the supersonic solar wind (yellow haze) flows around the Earth's magnetic field (blue wavy lines), it forms a highly turbulent boundary layer called the 'magnetosheath' (yellow swirling area). A new research paper describes observations of small-scale magnetic reconnection within the magnetosheath, revealing important clues about heating in the sun's outer layers and elsewhere in the universe.

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NASA/GSFC

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