All articles tagged with #magnetism
A new study confirms the Moon possessed a magnetic field 4.2 billion years ago by analyzing a buried volcanic complex on its far side. Researchers combined gravity and magnetic data from orbital probes to identify a dense, magnetized rock body, resolving a long-standing debate about the lunar dynamo.
Astronomers from Harvard and the University of Oregon have detected the first unambiguous radio signal originating from an exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b. Using South Africa's MeerKAT telescope, the team identified auroral bursts that allow for the first direct measurement of an exoplanet's magnetic field strength, confirming theoretical models for young, massive gas giants.
Astronomers have detected the first direct radio signal from an exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b, using the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa. The signal, attributed to natural auroral activity rather than extraterrestrial life, reveals a magnetic field over 300 times stronger than Jupiter’s. This breakthrough allows for the first direct measurement of an exoplanet’s magnetic field, confirming theoretical predictions for young, massive gas giants.
Astronomers have detected the first unambiguous radio signals originating from an exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b, located 63 light-years away. Using South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope, researchers identified short, circularly polarized bursts caused by auroral activity. This discovery confirms the planet possesses a magnetic field thousands of times stronger than Earth’s, marking a milestone in characterizing distant worlds without relying on starlight.
A new study in Nature identifies gravitational torque between Earth's inner core and mantle as the primary driver of multidecadal changes in the length of day (LOD). While electromagnetic and topographic forces at the core-mantle boundary act as resisting mechanisms, the gravitational influence dominates. This finding provides new constraints on the physical properties of Earth's deep interior, including the viscosity of the inner core and the conductivity of the lowermost mantle.
Using the MeerKAT radio telescope, researchers detected a seven-hour radio burst that originates from the exoplanet Beta Pictoris b, marking the first direct radio signal from a single planet. The signal indicates a powerful magnetic field and aurora-like activity, offering a new way to study exoplanetary magnetism, atmospheres, and habitability, and paving the way for targeted observations with future radio observatories.
Scientists recreated the sound of Earth's 41,000-year-old magnetic reversal (the Laschamps excursion) using ESA Swarm data and ancient records, showing the field weakened to about 5% of its normal strength for centuries before flipping orientation for around 440 years and then staying far weaker than today. The event aligns with climate signals and megafauna extinctions and even ancient cave art, while today the field is weakening again with the North Pole drifting and the South Atlantic Anomaly expanding. Researchers caution that another reversal is not imminent, but ongoing monitoring of geomagnetic changes and space weather is essential.
New research on calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions in the Antarctic meteorite DOM 08006 reveals a magnetic field in the early solar system 12 times stronger than Earth's, implying magnetism helped flatten the solar nebula into a protoplanetary disk and aided planet formation alongside gravity.
A graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst mixed immiscible liquids (oil and water) with magnetized nickel particles and observed that the liquid boundary bent into a Grecian urn shape, disrupting emulsification and effectively bending the laws of thermodynamics. Simulations and collaboration with other universities showed strong magnetism can alter liquid interfaces, revealing a never‑before‑seen state in soft‑matter physics with no immediate practical use but expanding fundamental understanding.
Researchers used terahertz laser pulses to drive circular lattice vibrations in a crystal and tracked how angular momentum transfers between vibrational modes; during the transfer the rotation can flip direction due to the lattice’s rotational symmetry, offering a direct quantum signature of angular momentum conservation with potential implications for magnetism and ultrafast control of quantum materials.
DTU researchers engineered a compensated ferrimagnet built from chromium and pyrazine in a metal‑organic network that remains internally magnetized while almost entirely canceling its external magnetic field, even above room temperature. This could reduce stray fields that hinder dense electronics and enable closer integration of spin‑based devices, but the technology is still fundamental research and will require studies of electrical properties and thin‑film integration before real‑world use.
Astronomers propose that magnetic fields formed early in a star’s life can survive its evolution, linking magnetic activity observed in red giants to the magnetism seen on white dwarfs via the fossil field theory. Using starquakes (asteroseismology) to probe stellar interiors, they suggest these fossil fields could explain magnetism across evolutionary stages and imply that our Sun’s distant future—swelling into a red giant and eventually becoming a white dwarf—might be influenced by magnetic fields extending into its core. This work could reshape understanding of stellar magnetism and lifespan across the cosmos.
Researchers at the University of Konstanz demonstrate a completely contactless form of friction arising from the collective dynamics of magnetic moments between two layered magnets. By adjusting the gap between layers, they induce competing magnetic orders that cause repeated reorientation during motion, yielding a non-monotonic friction peak at intermediate distances. This dissipation occurs without wear or surface contact, challenging Amontons' law and suggesting tunable, wear-free friction for micro- and nano-scale devices and magnetic bearings.
By studying magnetism in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks from the Pilbara Craton, researchers traced rapid early plate movement—about 24 degrees of latitude in 30 million years and peak speeds near 47 cm/year—indicating an early, segmented lithosphere and challenging stagnant-lid theories about Earth's first tectonics.
New analysis of ancient Moon rocks from the Apollo missions suggests the Moon had a stronger early magnetic field than previously thought, shedding light on the Moon's ancient interior and geophysical history.