Imperial space scientists cluster at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

Space scientists from Imperial are among the 'Aurora Explorers' exhibiting at the 2011 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition - News

by Katie Weeks
8 July 2011

Space scientists from Imperial College London are this week giving people the chance to explore an invisible shield that surrounds the Earth, known as the magnetosphere, as part of an exhibit at the 2011 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. This annual event, which is running until 10 July, gives the public the opportunity to visit stands and meet researchers to discover cutting edge science and engineering research from across the UK.

The magnetosphere is formed where the Earth's magnetic field holds back charged particles streaming away from the Sun, known as the solar wind. Imperial physicists play a leading role in the development and operation of four Cluster satellites that have been exploring the Earth’s magnetosphere since 2000.

The new exhibit, Aurora Explorer, gives visitors the chance to hear the 'sounds' of the magnetosphere, use magnetometers to search for invisible currents , experiment with a miniature magnetosphere and make their very own Cluster satellite model. They can also view custom-made movies that bring the magnetosphere to life. The exhibition also gives people the opportunity to get up close to real sensors that are identical to those onboard the Cluster satellites, and chat to the scientists and engineers who made them and now operate them.

Most of the time the magnetosphere protects the Earth from the Sun and the solar wind,  but sometimes violent outbursts from the Sun 'solar storms' can break down the magnetosphere's protection, leading to what is called space weather. Space weather can affect electricity grids, satellite navigation, satellite operations, and astronauts in space, to name just a few examples. This is one of the aspects of the magnetosphere’s activity that the researchers behind the new exhibit are exploring.

Dr Jonathan Eastwood, from the Department of Physics at Imperial and one of the scientists staging the exhibit, said: "The response we've received from visitors to the exhibit has been fantastic. In particular, it has been great to use these exhibits to show how our research has relevance to everyday life, for example describing how space weather can upset electronic circuits in satellites and interfere with electricity grids on the ground."

The new exhibit is a collaboration between scientists and engineers from Imperial's Space and Atmospheric physics group, together with researchers from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Lancaster University, University of Leicester and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

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In the videos to the right, Martin Archer, a postgraduate student in the Space and Atmospheric physics group, gives a tour of the exhibit and demonstrates a magnetosphere made from elastic bands which visitors to the exhibition can see for themselves.

Cluster, which launched in 2000, is a major European Space Agency mission and it carries several UK-led instruments which examine the magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. The mission has revolutionised our understanding of the magnetosphere through its unique ability to measure the three-dimensional structure of the magnetic fields, currents and charged particle populations, and how they vary in time.

In recent years, the Cluster satellites have been exploring how the enigmatic Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, are created. Scientists now know the aurorae are caused when charged particles stream along the magnetic field of a planet and interact with its atmosphere. Variation in the Sun's activity controls the frequency and intensity of these beautiful displays. The exhibition explains how Cluster is helping scientists understand how this natural light display is created.

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Seen from space, the aurora is an oval of glowing light, centred on the Earth’s magnetic poles. Seen from the ground, it often appears as swirling curtains of light. The most common colour in the aurora is green, but red and purple auroras are also observed and measurements from space show that the aurora emits X-rays and ultraviolet light too.

The Aurora Explorer exhibition shows beautiful movies of the Northern Lights seen from the ground, and features a spherical projection screen, representing the Earth, onto which scientists show real images of the aurora taken from space. Visitors are also able to see a practical demonstration of how electrons which are accelerated into very thin air can produce auroral light.