Solar Orbiter tracks origin of mysterious magnetic switchbacks

The European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has flown through an S-shaped kink known as a ‘switchback’ in the solar wind’s magnetic field. By fingerprinting the elusive particles within the switchback, Solar Orbiter has traced its origin back to the Sun’s surface and revealed more about solar magnetism – the unruly instigator of dangerous solar storms.

The Sun has an intense and restless magnetic field. This field not only governs the star itself but is also dragged outwards along field lines by the solar wind, a stream of hot charged particles (plasma) that continuously pours out…