Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Compressing Jupiter’s Magnetosphere
Shaped by its strong internal magnetic field and the incoming solar wind, Jupiter has the largest magnetosphere in the solar system. It also has highly active aurorae at its poles, though they are most visible in ultraviolet wavelengths. A new analysis of Juno’s data shows that on 6-7 December 2022, Jupiter’s magnetosphere got compressed, coinciding…
Rip Currents and Hurricanes
When it comes to the beach, looks can be deceiving. That calm-looking water to the side of big crashing waves may actually be a rip current that carries water back out to the ocean. Rip currents are a result of conservation of mass; just as waves carry water to the shore, something has to carry…
Falling From the Sky
Artist Sho Shibuya paints daily meditations on a copy of The New York Times. These particular examples are part of a recent collection, Falling From the Sky, that features realistic trompe l’oeil droplets that celebrate rain and rainy days. Having spent many an hour contemplating water droplets on my window, I love these. (Image credits:…
Aboard a Hurricane Hunter
For decades, NOAA has relied on two WP-3D Orion aircraft–nicknamed Kermit and Miss Piggy–to carry crews into the heart of hurricanes, collecting data all the while. Every ride aboard a Hurricane Hunter is a bumpy one, but some flights are notorious for the level of turbulence they see. In a recent analysis, researchers used flight…
Cooling Tower Demolition
As part of the demolition of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant in Nottinghamshire, workers simultaneously demolished eight cooling towers. The video is here. As the towers collapse, smoke and dust gets blown both out of the base and up each tower. The flow details are fascinating. The plumes have rings in them, perhaps related to…
Tides Widen Ice Cracks
When icebergs calve off of Arctic and Antarctic coastlines, it affects glacial flows upstream as well as local mixing between fresh- and seawater. A recent study points to ocean tides as a major factor in widening the ice cracks that lead to calving. The team built a simplified mathematical model of an ice shelf, taking…
A Glimpse of the Solar Wind
In December 2024, Parker Solar Probe made its closest pass yet to our Sun. In doing so, it captured the detailed images seen here, where three coronal mass ejections — giant releases of plasma, twisted by magnetic fields — collide in the Sun’s corona. Events like these shape the solar wind and the space weather…
Espresso in Slow-Mo
Espresso has some pretty cool physics. But it’s also just lovely to watch in slow motion. This video offers a look at the making of an espresso shot at 120 frames per second (though you can also enjoy a 1000 fps version here). Watching the film form, expand, and break up at the beginning and…
Oil-Slicked Bubble Bursts
When bubbles at the surface of the ocean pop, they can send up a spray of tiny droplets that carry salt, biomass, microplastics, and other contaminants into the atmosphere. Teratons of such materials enter the atmosphere from the ocean each year. To better understand how contaminants can cross from the ocean to the atmosphere, researchers…
Damping a Skyscraper
Wind forces on a skyscraper can set it swaying, so engineers design dampers to stop the motion and keep users comfortable. Some buildings use suspended solid mass dampers to counter a building’s motion, but others take a liquid approach. Whether by shifting water through specially shaped chambers or by sloshing it back and forth in…