In a turbulent magnetic environment, magnetic field lines become scrambled. As the field lines cross, intense electric currents (shown here as bright regions) form and eventually trigger magnetic reconnection (indicated by a flash), which is an explosive event that releases magnetic energy accumulated in the current layers and ejects high-speed bi-directional jets of electrons. NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission witnessed this process in action as it flew through the electron jets the turbulent boundary just at the edge of Earth’s magnetic environment.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center's Conceptual Image Lab/Lisa Poje
Simulations by: Colby Haggerty (University of Chicago), Tulasi Parashar (University of Delaware)
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