Ancient grains in an Antarctic meteorite reveal evidence of a magnetic field in early solar system, suggesting magnetism helped shape the young sun

Tiny mineral grains preserved inside an ancient meteorite have recorded evidence of a magnetic field that existed during the earliest stages of the solar system, suggesting that magnetism, alongside gravity, helped shape the young sun and its surrounding disk of gas and dust.

Ancient Meteorite Records Reveal a Magnetic Field in the Early Solar System

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) examined microscopic grains in a meteorite recovered from Antarctica and found traces of ancient magnetism dating to the first 200,000 years of solar system history. The findings provide what researchers describe as the earliest known evidence of a magnetic field in the infant solar system.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, challenges the view that gravity alone drove the transformation of the early solar system from a cloud of gas and dust into a flattened disk that eventually produced the sun and planets.

“This transition, from a spherical cloud to a protoplanetary disk, is one of the most significant events in all of solar system history,” said Benjamin Weiss, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT, in a statement issued. Measurements from the study, he said, indicate that magnetism likely played a role.

Magnetic records preserved in meteorite grains

The researchers studied DOM 08006, a primitive meteorite discovered in 2008 in the Dominion Range of Antarctica. The meteorite contains calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions, or CAIs, which formed during the earliest period of solar system development.

CAIs are among the oldest known solid materials from the solar system. Some of the grains contain magnetic minerals that can preserve the imprint of a magnetic field present when they formed.

The team isolated tiny grains from the meteorite and subjected them to a series of tests to determine whether they retained remanent magnetisation — a lasting record of an earlier magnetic field.

The researchers found evidence of a magnetic field with an estimated strength of about 150 to 600 microteslas. That is roughly three to 12 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field today.

The preservation of these records was possible because DOM 08006 appears to have undergone relatively little alteration during its long history.

“Other meteorites went through many different processes over this 4.5 billion year history,” Weiss said. “But somehow, DOM has experienced less alteration than any other meteorite.”

Magnetism before the planets

Scientists already had evidence of magnetic fields in the solar system several million years after its formation, when the sun had formed and the planets were beginning to take shape.

The new measurements push that evidence much further back — to a period when the solar system was still a collapsing cloud of gas and dust and the sun itself was beginning to form.

In the early solar system, electrically charged particles moving through the developing disk could have generated a magnetic field. That field may then have influenced the movement of gas and material towards the central star.

The researchers argue that magnetism therefore needs to be considered alongside gravity when reconstructing how the early solar system evolved.

“We think these kinds of magnetic fields were helping to move gas from the protoplanetary disk, in toward this central star, the sun,” said Cauê Borlina, the study’s first author and now an assistant professor at Purdue University.

The findings do not replace gravity as the main force shaping the early solar system. Instead, they suggest that magnetic fields were another important part of the physical processes that brought material together and helped the young sun grow.

The study was led by Borlina, with Weiss, Elias Mansbach and Nilanjan Chatterjee of MIT, along with researchers from Tsinghua University, the University of Cambridge, Caltech and the University of California, Los Angeles

A faint layer of air high above Earth is becoming an important concern for satellite tracking operators. NASA is now offering up to USD 500,000 to individual winning teams that can develop a practical way to monitor it. The US space agency opened the Orbital Clarity Challenge on August 19, asking researchers and companies to develop instruments that can determine how much drag spacecraft experience in low Earth orbit. Up to four teams can win the top prize, taking the potential total award to USD 2 million.

The focus is the thermosphere, a region that begins about 80 kilometres above Earth and extends hundreds of kilometres into space. The air here is extremely sparse, but spacecraft moving through it still encounter enough resistance to gradually alter their orbits.

That resistance does not remain constant. When the Sun becomes more active, bursts of energy can heat the upper atmosphere. The thermosphere expands, increasing the amount of gas encountered by satellites. The resulting increase in drag can change their altitude and make their future position harder to calculate. For spacecraft operators, even a small difference can matter when several objects are moving through the same orbital region.

A Gap in the Data

NASA already relies on computer models to estimate atmospheric drag. But those calculations depend on how well scientists understand conditions in the upper atmosphere at a particular time and location. The agency wants new technology that can provide more direct information.

Under the competition, proposed instruments should be inexpensive enough to be deployed widely. NASA says they could potentially be carried aboard commercial spacecraft as hosted payloads, allowing measurements to be collected from several points in orbit rather than from a limited number of dedicated missions.

The competition will run through several stages, with NASA aiming to move successful ideas from an initial concept towards an instrument that can eventually be tested in space. Winning teams are also expected to receive an opportunity for an orbital demonstration. Applications for the first stage close in November 2026.

Satellite Tracking: Why this Matters?

The number of spacecraft operating in low Earth orbit has grown rapidly, with satellites supporting communications, navigation, Earth observation and scientific research.

Their paths are affected by several forces, including the thin atmosphere at orbital altitude. During periods of strong solar activity, atmospheric drag can rise sharply and contribute to changes in orbital altitude. Better information about those changes could help operators plan manoeuvres more accurately and improve forecasts of when satellites will descend from orbit.

NASA’s prize is therefore aimed at a relatively small piece of the space infrastructure puzzle: getting a clearer picture of the air that satellites are still moving through, even hundreds of kilometres above the ground.

French astronaut Sophie Adenot has become the first Frenchwoman to perform a spacewalk, spending 6 hours and 23 minutes outside the International Space Station to begin repairs to its exterior communications system.

French astronaut Sophie Adenot made European space history on Tuesday by becoming the first French woman to perform a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Adenot, 44, stepped outside the orbiting laboratory alongside American astronaut Anil Menon, floating roughly 400 kilometres above the Earth for 6 hours and 23 minutes to begin a repair of the station’s exterior communications equipment.

“I’m out,” Adenot said as she exited the station. “I feel very good now.”

A Repair Job That Ran Long The astronauts’ task was to replace an aging space-to-ground antenna on the station’s Z1 truss — the primary link carrying high-speed data, voice calls and video between the station and mission control in Houston. The antenna had stopped tracking NASA’s data relay satellites since November and had been out of service since, with a second antenna carrying the station’s communications load in the meantime.

Menon and Adenot successfully removed the failed antenna and secured it to the truss structure, but disconnecting its electrical cables and loosening its mounting bolts took longer than planned, leaving no time to install the replacement unit. NASA has scheduled a second spacewalk for Tuesday, August 25, to complete the installation. The station’s communications were not affected by the delay, as the backup antenna continued operating throughout.

Inside the station, astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir coordinated the operation from the control desk, operating the station’s robotic arm and monitoring the spacewalkers’ life support systems throughout.

Days of Preparation Before the Hatch Opened Spacewalks demand days of preparation before the airlock ever opens. In the lead-up, Adenot and Menon spent dozens of hours readying their gear inside the station — inspecting safety tethers, organising tools, servicing backup emergency jetpacks, charging suit batteries, checking for pressure leaks, and testing biomedical sensors and radios.

Spacewalk complete. ✅

After 6 hours and 23 minutes outside the International Space Station, @Soph_astro is safely back inside.

With today’s EVA, Sophie becomes the first French woman to perform a spacewalk. 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/i3BghrdaRK— European Space Agency (@esa) August 18, 2026

“A successful [spacewalk] starts long before the hatch opens, and that’s where my focus has been these past few days: rehearsing, preparing and focusing,” Adenot said on social media before the excursion.

Suit fitting was a major focus of the preparation: working inside a heavy, pressurised spacesuit for over six hours puts considerable strain on an astronaut’s hands and shoulders, and engineers on the ground worked closely with Adenot to customise her suit and reduce pressure points.

A Milestone for European Space Exploration Adenot brought extensive technical experience to the mission. A trained engineer and former helicopter test pilot, she was selected for astronaut training by the European Space Agency in 2022 and launched to the space station in February 2026, becoming only the second French woman in history to reach space, after physician-astronaut Claudie Haigneré in 1996. With Tuesday’s spacewalk, she also became the second European woman ever to conduct a spacewalk, after Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in 2022, and the fifth French citizen overall to do so. The last French citizen to walk in space was Thomas Pesquet.

Despite the milestone, Adenot credited the wider team behind the mission. “My deepest gratitude goes to everyone who made this possible — pioneers who came before us, but also the incredible teams working behind the scenes today,” she said after returning inside the station.