It has long been a joke in Astronomy that if you wanted to really mess with someone, you should ask “how do magnetic fields and dust effect that?” These two factors, which permeate most of space in various amounts, are extraordinarily hard to understand, but affect everything. To make life easier, we often assume their effects are negligible, and hope we are right as we move on with calculations that ignore their tedious equations, and complicating effects.

But sometimes, a researcher or research team will actively seek to understand how these two things actually play a role in the evolution of this universe we all share. Today’s first two stories come from science teams who took this extra step.