Last summertime , Jennifer Briggs , a cathartic student at Pepperdine University , was interning at NASA when she discovered a trade name - young interaction in Earth ’s magnetosphere that produced a dead - lived aurora reminding Briggs of a seashell .
The aurorean seashell is twisty , evidence of a significant disturbance in Earth ’s magnetic field . Briggs worked with NASA scientists David Sibeck , Marcos Silveira , and her wise man Gerard Fasel to understand its reason . Usually , these events are assort with eruptions from the Sun , but not this one .
To make more insight , Briggs used data from NASA ’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission or MMS . The MMS ballistic capsule was at the right place at the correct time to show that the magnetosphere was hard compact . The morning was make by something wring the magnetosphere by about 25,000 klick ( 15,500 mi ) in 1 minute and 45 seconds .
“ you’re able to suppose someone punch Earth ’s magnetised field , ” Briggs say . “ There was a massive , but localized compression , ” Briggs said in astatement .
This fugacious phenomenon is think to be the first lesson of a “ foreshock return localized compression . ” The foreshock is the region just outside the magnetosphere , where the electrically charged speck of the solar air current first add up into liaison with the Earth ’s magnetic field of study . The part is turbulent , and such turbulences can leave in spectacular events like this .
The magnetosphere is the region of space where the influence of our major planet ’s magnetized field strongly interacts with the charged particles present in interplanetary space . While on the surface , the Earth ’s magnetic study is a dipole ( just like a regular bar attractor ) , as it extend into blank , it becomes misshapen under the effect of the solar wind . The side face away from the Sun extends further away than the Sun - facing side , which is about 65,000 kilometers ( 40,000 miles ) from the satellite ’s surface .
Briggs and her team coalesce many sets of observation to come at these conclusion , which would not have been potential without the student catch the unusual configuration . Their study was presented last calendar month at the American Geophysical Union coming together in San Francisco .
