Researchers have unveiled some of the secrets into how space weather and “solar wind” works, an important discovery that could help scientists find ways to protect cell phones and power grids on Earth, according to Phys.org.

Researchers have been trying to understand the phenomenon of space weather, and recent tests at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory has uncovered some secrets about magnetic reconnection and how it affects increased solar wind particles. Electromagnetic blasts caused by solar wind can knock out cell phones, satellites, and power grids.

In addition, researchers at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania used a plasma “wind tunnel” to explain the magnetic effect in their experiments.

They found that the magnetic disturbance of solar wind is an important factor in the astrophysical jets blasted out by stars at the end of their lives, and researchers want to use satellite measurements to learn more about hot plasma, which is released in large volumes by the sun every second.

Once released, the solar winds create massive geomagnetic storms, which affects electronics here on Earth.

The research will be presented before an upcoming annual meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics in New Orleans.

The phenomenon of magnetic reconnection — the eruption of plasma from the sun — has long been a mystery for scientists, who have been trying to figure out how it transforms magnetic energy into particle energy. This most recent research allows scientists to identify both how the transformation takes place and measure how much of that magnetic energy is transformed into particle energy.