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Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth
Posted by
Soulskill
on Fri Oct 31, 2008 07:17 PM
from the no-cake-jokes-allowed dept.
from the no-cake-jokes-allowed dept.
MaxwellEdison writes "Scientists have discovered evidence of magnetic portals connecting the Earth and the Sun every 8 minutes. 'Several speakers at the Workshop have outlined how FTEs form: On the dayside of Earth (the side closest to the sun), Earth's magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. Approximately every eight minutes, the two fields briefly merge or "reconnect," forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth. The European Space Agency's fleet of four Cluster spacecraft and NASA's five THEMIS probes have flown through and surrounded these cylinders, measuring their dimensions and sensing the particles that shoot through.'"
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Another misleading headline (Score:4, Insightful)
"Magnetic Portals Connect the Solar Wind and the Earth's Magnetosphere" would be much better.
Yes, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
(c) Headline too long. (Score:4, Insightful)
> (a) this is Slashdot, and (b) this is Halloween. How on Earth do you expect to find a sensible summary given a juxtaposition like that?
(c) That headline is too long.
It's (c) that kills a lot of good headlines, honestly, but there's only so much space on the front page for those headlines to fit.
Parent
Re:Another misleading headline (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
I was thinking of a stargate time warp (Score:3, Funny)
And if you combine with a solar flare at the right time do we get to go back to 1969 in the age of cheap intel shares, and cheap pot and free lsd?
Well-done, NASA! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well-done, NASA! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Well-done, NASA! (Score:4, Funny)
This next magnetic field configuration is impossible...
Parent
Re:Well-done, NASA! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nonsense. They are only in it for the cake at the end.
8 light-minutes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:8 light-minutes (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
The Summary (Score:5, Funny)
Is a lie.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Okay, that's good to know. Care to elaborate on why?
I'll elaborate for you (Score:5, Funny)
WHOOSH <-- this is the WHOOSH going over your head.
. <-- you.
o <-- this is the earth.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's a rounding error.
The explanation is a lie (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:The explanation is a lie (Score:4, Interesting)
Except portal wasn't developed by valve, it was a senior year project for digipen...
Not exactly. The precursor to Portal (Narbacular Drop) was developed by Digipen students. Valve subsequently hired said students to develop the game commercially using the Source engine, and Portal was born.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Was modded 'informative' earlier.
THEMIS Probes (Score:5, Funny)
Naw them ain't probes, them is aliens.
STARGATE!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:STARGATE!!!! (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:STARGATE!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Learn something new every day (Score:5, Funny)
Really? How fascinating!
Re:Learn something new every day (Score:5, Funny)
I'm from the day side of the earth and am really getting a kick out of these replies.
Parent
Re:Learn something new every day (Score:5, Interesting)
we, the people of the night side of earth, object to the hotheaded policies of the day side government. despite all of your anti-nighttime propaganda, your DST [wikipedia.org] ploy to temporally encroach on our borders is plain to see. thus you have broken the circadian treaty that has kept peace between our two nations. we will not stand for this diurnal threat to our coolheaded & peace-loving society.
we declare war on the heathen sun-worshipers to, once and for all, bring an end to their sidereal tyranny. the crepuscular revolution has begun!
Parent
which one? there 4 days sides to the earth (Score:4, Funny)
you don't believe Dr. Gene Ray, Cubic and Wisest Human [timecube.com]? don't tell me you are an academic deified Queer
<size 36 red font>
It is impossible for an academic
deified Queer ONE god to give
birth to, or breast-feed a Baby.
Bible fraud will destroy fools,
and they will eat one another.
Adam and Eve never existed.
Without profit, there is no god.
Believers will actually eat dung
before they will ever measure
their queer Godism for Cubic
Creation Truth. Just the other
Day in the NEWS, they were
worshipping their god image
in Vomit.
</size 36 red font>
Parent
Re:Learn something new every day (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, I find this rather interesting. For me the next question is how can this, or how does this affect global climate?
Parent
Re:Learn something new every day (Score:4, Funny)
It makes it warmer.
Parent
Re:Learn something new every day (Score:5, Funny)
Every 8 minutes. We call the time 4 minutes later "mini ice minutes."
Parent
Well at least we have (Score:4, Interesting)
the main plot device for next summer's blockbuster movie (tentatively titled "Star Portal").
-T
PS. Porno directors are already casting for the X-rated adaptation, tentatively titled "Star Hole"
Aurora Borealis? (Score:5, Interesting)
"the cylindrical portals tend to form above Earth's equator and then roll over Earth's winter pole"
I wonder if that's why the aurora borealis seems to crawl across the sky. I seem to remember (from when I lived in the high north) that it happened in fairly regular intervals. The "every eight minuets" seems to ring true as the time between each pass of the light though I haven't been there in eight years so I might just be remembering it wrong.
8.32 light minutes (Score:5, Insightful)
It is 93 million miles, or 8.32 light minutes, separating Sun and Earth (center to center) -- the magnetosphere will be slightly less. Coincidence? I hope they are investigating some sort of possible resonance or standing wave that is directly related to this distance.
Mal-2
Re:8.32 light minutes (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Use for planet detection? (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly!
Could this be used to detect planets (which have a magnetic field)? The delay between subsequent magnetic portal anomalies should give approximate distance from central Sun to the planet.
And do other planets (with magnetic fields) exhibit this magnetic portal as well? Then the Sun should somehow contain a magnetic "signal" which is a superposition of all of those. With Fourier analysis we should be able to make out the components, thus finding out how many planets (with magnetic fields) there are and their distances from the central star.
And a bit more sci-fi idea: could we use this for communication purposes - make the Sun or the portal "ring" with our message? Kind of like lighting a big enough lamp to be seen from a further distance.
And something to think about: how do binary stars behave... Are they in resonance?
Parent
Planets Aligned (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Planets Aligned (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Since Pluto is no longer a planet, its portal privileges have been revoked.
let me be the first to say (Score:4, Funny)
<keanureevesvoice>
"whoa"
</keanureevesvoice>
Re:let me be the first to say (Score:4, Funny)
And the sequel:
<keanureevesvoice>
"whoa"
</keanureevesvoice>
Parent
Particles straight from the sun, (Score:4, Funny)
and I'm still alive.
In the sun's magnetic portal,
and I'm still alive.
Portals or a series of tubes? (Score:3, Interesting)
These portals I suspect are just a series of tubes.
The sun is just like a big truck that dumps particles into these tubes and it can be an enormous amount of material.
This message approved by the corrupt and out of touch Republicans for science
Teleportation (Score:3, Funny)
Thanks for straightening this out.. (Score:4, Insightful)
On the dayside of Earth (the side closest to the sun),
Re:Who tagged "!ipods"? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Who tagged "!ipods"? (Score:5, Funny)
Well... it is true at least, right?
Lets add other fun !-tags.
Lets see... !aardvark, !aardwolf, !aargau, !aare, !aaron, !aascu...
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:how long... (Score:4, Funny)
That would be a terribly depressing eight minute journey. Unless you became a human comet and smashed into Mercury or something, which would just be badass.
Parent
Re:how about the moon? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:how about the moon? (Score:5, Funny)
But wouldn't it be cool if it did?
Parent