A particle storage ring spanning 50 feet (15 meters) in diameter is set to go on a long cruise this summer, from New York to Illinois, where it will get a new life capturing ultra-rare particles in a magnetic field. Full story
Earth's internal engine is running about 1,000 degrees Celsius (about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than previously measured, providing a better explanation for how the planet generates a magnetic field, a new study has found. Full story
It's a good time to be a particle physicist. The long-sought Higgs boson particle seems finally to have been found at an accelerator in Geneva, and scientists are now hot on the trail of another tiny piece of the universe, this one tied to a new fundamental force of nature. Full story
The way matter behaves in the extremely powerful magnetic fields of dying stars known as white dwarfs has now been mimicked in labs on Earth, researchers say. Full story
A small NASA space telescope has revealed surprising magnetic braids of super-hot matter in the sun's outer atmosphere, a find that may explain the star's mysteriously hot corona, researchers say. Full story
Within supersized alien versions of Earth, a common transparent ceramic may become a flowing liquid metal, perhaps granting those distant worlds magnetic fields to shield life from harmful radiation, researchers say. Full story
During its outbursts, the infant star V1647 Orionis illuminated McNeil's Nebula. In this artistic rendering, magnetic fields drive powerful flows onto the star, creating two hot spots that produce the high-energy emission.
