Stellar magnetism: What's behind the most brilliant lights in the sky?
University of Wisconsin-Madison
The data on so-called magnetic reconnection came from a quartet of new spacecraft that measure radiation and magnetic fields in high Earth orbit. When the law is violated, we can get an explosion. In the 1970s, telescopes orbiting above earth’s sheltering magnetic field and atmosphere began returning data on X-rays and other non-visible types of radiation. Supernovas, which release energy visible across the galaxies when they explode. Almost everything we know about the universe comes from the light that reaches us, says Cary Forest, also a professor of physics at UW-Madison.