Wednesday, April 01, 2026

 SPACE/COSMOS

Spacecraft data reveals surprising detail about Saturn's magnetic "shield"




Lancaster University
Saturn 

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Saturn's equinox captured by Cassini in 2009

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Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute





Scientists analysing data from the Cassini-Huygens mission have uncovered a significant structural surprise in Saturn’s protective magnetic bubble.

Researchers say this discovery confirms that giant planets operate under a different magnetospheric regime from the Earth’s.

The study in Nature Communications includes Dr Licia Ray and Dr Sarah Badman from Lancaster University with Dr Chris Arridge, formerly of Lancaster. 

Cassini was sent to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings, natural satellites and local space environment, as part of a research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian space agency (ASI). It was in orbit between 2004 and 2017.

This latest research backs up a longstanding scientific theory that the rapid spin of massive planets like Saturn would replace the solar wind – the stream of charged particles from the Sun - as the dominant force sculpting their “magnetospheres”.

A magnetosphere is the region in the near-space environment where a planetary magnetic field acts as a shield against the solar wind. However, near the planetary poles, funnel-shaped openings called "magnetospheric cusps" allow charged particles from the Sun to leak directly into a planetary atmosphere.

Researchers analysed Cassini data collected between 2004 and 2010 to determine the precise location of Saturn’s magnetospheric cusp. The results showed a clear difference from similar measurements at Earth.

Saturn's immense rotational forces "drag" the cusp away from noon, skewing its average location significantly toward the afternoon sector, specifically between 13:00 and 15:00 local time while sometimes extending toward 20:00 local time. The dusk-oriented location of Saturn’s cusp confirms that a planet’s rotation rate can fundamentally change the structure of its near space environment

The shifted cusp location fundamentally alters models of magnetic reconnection, high-energy particle acceleration, and Saturn’s powerful auroral activity.

Dr Licia Ray of Lancaster University said: “This result allows us to move forward with new and improved theories on how planetary magnetospheres interact with the solar wind.”

Earth spins quite slowly compared to gas giants like Saturn. With one terrestrial day lasting 24 hours, the dominant factor driving the shape of the magnetosphere is the balance between the pressure from the Sun - the solar wind- and pressure from Earth’s magnetic field. This balance aligns the cusp towards local high noon.

At Saturn, one day lasts approximately 10.7 hours and its magnetosphere is full of ionised material from its moon Enceladus. These two effects mean that for Saturn, pressure from the magnetic field and a rapidly spinning disk of ionised material must balance the solar wind pressure.

Dr Ray said: “In particular, the afternoon cusp locations have implications for how we interpret Saturn’s bright aurora and where we expect magnetic reconnection, an explosive process that accelerates particles to very high energies of keV and more, to occur. It also highlights the rich science that can still be done with Cassini data more than eight years after the end of mission.”


 

When an orgasm is consistently absent, women may see it as less important



Rutgers research shows women may begin to downplay orgasms when they don’t experience them across different partners



Rutgers University






Over time, expectations can shift, especially when something remains out of reach. Researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick suggest this also may be true for orgasms.

When an orgasm is repeatedly absent, women may begin to see it as less important, according to the researchers, whose study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

“Women don’t necessarily care less about orgasm compared to men, but when it doesn’t happen regularly, they may start to see it as less important,” said Grace Wetzel, the lead author of the study who conducted the research as a former Rutgers doctoral student and is now at Indiana University. “That shift in expectations may be one way people adapt to the ‘orgasm gap,’ the well-documented pattern in which heterosexual women experience orgasm less often than men during partnered sex.”

The findings show that women may begin to downplay orgasms when they don’t experience them across different partners. Researchers said this shift may help ease declines in satisfaction and relationship quality, even though the absence of orgasm still has negative effects overall. They added it may even contribute to the gap between how often men and women experience orgasm, when women stop trying to have them.

This pattern reflects a broader tendency: When people are less likely to experience something, they often lower both their expectations for it and how important it feels, said Wetzel, whose research focuses on how gendered experiences shape sexual lives, particularly in relation to pleasure.

Wetzel said the results reflect both individual coping strategies and a broader social context in which women’s pleasure is often deprioritized, even as individuals make decisions that work best for their relationships.

Lowering expectations may help protect relationships in the moment, but researchers note it also may help perpetuate the gap and reduce satisfaction over time.

Researchers used a set of controlled scenarios in which participants were asked to imagine different relationship situations. In each case, an orgasm either occurred frequently or rarely, both in past relationships and with a current partner. By varying these conditions, the researchers examined how consistent experiences, or the lack of them, influenced how participants viewed orgasm.

Participants were then asked to rate how important orgasms would be to them, along with their expected levels of sexual satisfaction, desire and relationship commitment. This allowed researchers to assess how changes in orgasm experience shaped both perceived importance and broader relationship outcomes.

“We found that women placed the least importance on orgasm when they were told in the hypothetical scenario that they had not experienced it in the past or with a current partner,” Wetzel said. “In other words, women devalued orgasm only when it was consistently absent across partners.”

The study, coauthored by Diana Sanchez, a professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, also found that men showed a similar pattern, placing less importance on a hypothetical female partner’s orgasm when it was consistently absent. This suggests that both partners adjusted their expectations when orgasm was not part of the experience, the researchers said.

The absence of an orgasm also shaped how women evaluated relationships. 

“When women saw orgasm as less important, it helped soften the effects of not experiencing it on their relationships,” Wetzel said. “In that sense, it acted as a way of protecting how they felt about the relationship.”

However, women consistently reported lower sexual satisfaction, less desire and lower relationship commitment when they imagined not experiencing an orgasm with a partner, Wetzel said.

Wetzel said the findings suggest that women’s attitudes toward orgasms aren’t fixed but shaped by experience and context. The study also highlights how both partners may contribute to this pattern.

“Men’s and women’s devaluing of women’s orgasm likely perpetuates the orgasm gap over time, as expectations for and pursuit of women’s orgasm decrease,” Wetzel said.

She added that couples can work together to make choices that are right for them, while ensuring that the female partner’s pleasure is prioritized, regardless of orgasm.

The study was also coauthored by Shana Cole, an associate professor of psychology at Rutgers, and Hayley Svensson, a former doctoral student at Rutgers who is currently at the University of Oklahoma.