physics

The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission may have made the first direct observation of what are known as magnetic switchbacks on the Sun. The phenomenon, which consists of S-shaped disturbances that cause sudden reversals of its magnetic field, had been identified by different space probes since the 1970s, but its explanation had only been described theoretically. The finding is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Romano Corradi, director of the Gran Telescopio de Canarias, assesses the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, an international collaboration of the space agencies of the United States (NASA), Europe (ESA) and Canada (CSA).

An analysis published in Nature Astronomy quantifies the risk to human life posed by impacts of space rocket fragments on Earth, which are more likely to occur in the southern part of the planet.

A publication in the journal AIP Advances reports the detection over the tropics of a large ozone hole, defined as an area where more than 25% of the usual ozone has been lost. The hole would be comparable in depth to the well-known hole over Antarctica, but would cover an area seven times larger.

On 4 July 2012, physicists from all over the world celebrated the milestone achieved by CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva: they had found the elusive Higgs boson, described theoretically in 1964 and a key part of the standard model. Among the dozens of scientists who participated in that discovery, with the ATLAS and CMS experiments, there were many Spanish physicists, who ten years later appreciate what it meant.

The first direct image of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy shows a 'monster' devouring matter at a slow pace. The black hole itself is spinning, and its spin axis is pointing just 30 degrees away from us. The result shows that the size of the black hole is proportional to the mass it contains, confirming the theory of general relativity. Xavier Barcons, ESO's Director General, assesses the new finding.

The Joint European Torus (JET) has achieved a relevant scientific milestone related to energy production from nuclear fusion reactions. The results confirm some of the technological options selected for the large international ITER experiment. Spain has proposed to build a scientific facility in Granada to develop materials with which to build future reactors.

The dream of obtaining electrical energy from the fusion of two atomic nuclei is a little closer. Results obtained with some of the most powerful lasers on the planet show that one of the strategies to achieve this, nuclear fusion by inertial confinement, works as predicted 50 years ago.