Breach is seen in magnetic field
Times Staff and Wire Reports
Recent satellite observations have revealed the largest breach yet seen in the magnetic field that protects Earth from most of the sun’s violent blasts. The discovery, made by a fleet of five small NASA satellites known as Themis, was reported at the American Geophysical Union meeting.
Last summer, Themis calculated a layer of solar particles to be at least 4,000 miles thick in the outermost part of the Earth’s magnetosphere. Such breaches are temporary, and this one lasted about an hour.
