The mysterious properties of meteorites will be transformed into music and performed live at the Cambridge Festival this Saturday (21 March). Presented by experts from Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Cambridge, the event will allow the audience to experience space science in a new way by turning the microscopic textures and mineral structures of meteorites into melodies.

Magnetic fields are observed throughout the universe, including in very young galaxies where they extend across thousands of light-years. The standard explanation for the origin of these fields is the dynamo mechanism, in which turbulent motions in an ionized gas amplify weak seed magnetic fields over time. However, conventional dynamo theory predicts that building large-scale magnetic fields in galaxies should take several billion years. Observations of galaxies in the early universe that already host strong magnetic fields therefore present a major puzzle.

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers propose a mechanism that may help resolve this discrepancy. They show that the gravitational collapse of plasma clouds during galaxy formation can significantly accelerate the amplification of magnetic fields.

Most visible matter in the universe exists as plasma — an ionized gas that can be stirred by gravity, temperature gradients, and rotation, producing turbulence. Turbulent flows contain swirling structures known as eddies, and the rate at which magnetic fields grow depends on how quickly these eddies turn over. The study finds that during gravitational collapse the properties of turbulence evolve in a way that leads to super-exponential growth of magnetic fields, allowing large-scale fields to develop up to possibly a hundred times faster than predicted by standard dynamo theory.

These results suggest that magnetic fields in galaxies could have formed much earlier than previously thought, potentially influencing galaxy evolution across cosmic time.

Environmental and sustainability compliance reporting is getting increasingly dependent on geospatial data and workflows. However, understanding of the connection between new European Union (EU) regulations and existing Earth Observation (EO) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies is limited. A new review study highlights how close alignment of law, data, and corporate practices can ensure that the geospatial workflows are fit for purpose in environmental and sustainability compliance reporting.