The Inimitable Tiff

On the dayside of Earth (the side closest to the sun), Earth’s magnetic field presses against the sun’s magnetic field. Approximately every eight minutes, the two fields briefly merge or “reconnect,” forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth. The European Space Agency’s fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA’s five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through. “They’re real,” says Sibeck.

I wish they would explain what the implications could mean to the magnetosphere. Or was I supposed to retain that from high school astronomy where we spent most the class working out metaphors for the sizes of the planets as golfballs, baseballs and footballs?