179 papers
Space physics explores the dynamic environment surrounding our planet and the wider solar system, focusing on how charged particles, magnetic fields, and solar winds interact with celestial bodies. This field helps us understand phenomena like auroras, space weather that can disrupt satellites, and the fundamental behavior of plasma in the vacuum of space. It bridges the gap between astronomy and particle physics, revealing the invisible forces that shape our cosmic neighborhood.
At Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category as it appears on arXiv, ensuring you get immediate access to the latest research. For each paper, we provide both a detailed technical summary for experts and a plain-language explanation that makes complex concepts understandable for everyone. Below are the latest space physics papers from arXiv, curated and simplified for your reading.
This study proposes a masked Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) reinforcement learning framework that optimizes fuel-efficient, adaptive collision avoidance and refueling strategies for small satellites conducting multi-debris active removal missions, demonstrating superior performance over traditional heuristic approaches in complex orbital environments.
This paper evaluates three mission planning approaches for active debris removal, demonstrating that while domain-randomized reinforcement learning offers a robust balance between speed and adaptability, Monte Carlo Tree Search provides superior constraint handling at the cost of significantly higher computational time, highlighting a critical trade-off between learned policy efficiency and search-based flexibility.
This study validates the role of ballooning instability and plasmoid formation as substorm onset triggers by comparing MHD simulation results with THEMIS satellite and ground-based auroral observations, specifically analyzing the correspondence between simulated field-aligned currents and observed auroral patterns to advance self-consistent magnetotail-ionosphere coupling models.
This paper presents the experimental implementation and microdosimetric characterization of a hybrid active-passive Galactic Cosmic Ray simulator, demonstrating its capability to reproduce space radiation fields through tissue equivalent proportional counter measurements validated by Monte Carlo simulations.
This paper presents the design, optimization, and in-silico benchmarking of GSI's hybrid active-passive Galactic Cosmic Ray simulator, which aims to better replicate the mixed-field nature of space radiation for deep-space mission planning, alongside the release of a computationally optimized Geant4 phase-space particle source for external research use.
Based on multi-wavelength observations of two large-scale CMEs, this study reveals that lateral deformation of upper flanks beneath overlying magnetic loops drives the transition from non-radial to radial propagation in the low corona, fundamentally shaping the CME's final structure and space weather impact.
This paper investigates realistic physical termination criteria for cosmic-ray backtracing in the atmosphere, demonstrating that the simplified sharp-boundary approximation should be replaced by altitude-dependent thresholds (at least 50 km for protons and higher for heavy nuclei) determined by the combined effects of Bethe-Bloch energy loss and hard scattering interactions.
This paper presents observations from the CALET instrument on the International Space Station detailing how the May 2024 solar storm generated a new, long-lasting component of multi-MeV relativistic electrons in Earth's radiation belts that extended down to L=2.2 and persisted for several months.
The paper introduces the "Alfvénon," a stable, three-dimensional exact nonlinear solitary Alfvén wave solution to the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations, characterized by an unperturbed far field, quasi-constant magnetic field magnitude, and open field-line topology.
This study demonstrates that magnetic switchbacks in the solar wind can originate in the sub-Alfvénic outer corona through expansion-driven amplification of fluctuations, correcting previous observational biases that suggested they only form in super-Alfvénic regions.