Conceptual image showing the magnetic field that surrounds and penetrates the planet Earth. Magnetic field lines emerge from the south magnetic pole, bend overhead and converge at the north magnetic pole, which is offset from the geographic north pol...

Earth's magnetosphere. Computer artwork showing the interaction of the solar wind with Earth's magnetic field (not to scale). The solar wind is made up of charged particles emitted by the Sun (right). The Earth's magnetic field deflects these particl...

Artwork of the millisecond pulsar known as PSR 1257+12, located 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. The star, with spins once every 0.006219 seconds, is also known as Lich. Surprisingly, this pulsar - a neutron star emitting beams of...

... y magnetic white dwarf stripping matter from a closely orbiting red dwarf partner. As the stolen material is funnelled along magnetic field lines, it encounters the white dwarf's magnetic pole. There the gas is compressed, and a violent but localised ...

... wards the white dwarf in a series of clumps or clouds; which then get deflected away from the system by the rapidly spinning magnetic field of the white dwarf. Systems such as these are also known as intermediate polars or DQ Her stars. ...

... wards the white dwarf in a series of clumps or clouds; which then get deflected away from the system by the rapidly spinning magnetic field of the white dwarf. Systems such as these are also known as intermediate polars or DQ Her stars. ...