Experiments at PPPL show remarkable agreement with satellite sightings
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

As on Earth, so in space. A four-satellite mission that is studying magnetic reconnection-the breaking apart and explosive reconnection of the magnetic field lines in plasma that occurs throughout the universe-has found key aspects of the process in space to be strikingly similar to those found in experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy`s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The similarities show how the studies complement each other: The laboratory captures important global features of reconnection and the spacecraft documents local key properties as they occur.