Using NASA ’s MMS mission data, SwRI explores unusual substorm events in Earth’s magnetotail to better understand magnetic reconnection and its effects on the global magnetosphere.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is investigating an unusual event in the Earth’s magnetotail, the elongated extension of the planet’s magnetosphere trailing away from the Sun. SwRI scientists are examining the nature of substorms, fleeting disturbances in the magnetotail that release energy and often cause aurorae, using data from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission.

Scientific discovery doesn’t always require a high-tech laboratory or a hefty budget. Many people have a first-rate lab right in their own homes—their kitchen.

It opens the door to a new era of electric efficiency.

Clean electricity generation paired with the first grid-level sodium battery energy storage system can bring costs down to just $0.028 per kWh. The 10 MWh storage capacity is executed with sodium-ion cells that can be charged in just 12 minutes.

Researchers in Japan have discovered that manganese could help reduce reliance on iridium as a catalyst for hydrogen production.