Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth 235
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.'"
Another misleading headline (Score:4, Insightful)
"Magnetic Portals Connect the Solar Wind and the Earth's Magnetosphere" would be much better.
8 light-minutes (Score:5, Insightful)
FTE = Flus Transfer Event (Score:2, Insightful)
Please, for the love of Helios and Demeter, spell out throw-away acronyms in summaries. It's annoying to read "Several speakers at the Workshop have outlined how FTEs form", and not being told what an FTE is. I really shouldn't have to RTFA[1] to discover that FTE = "Flux Transfer Event". It throws me off track when I read "how FTE are formed", and my brain translates to "how Frozen Talking Elephants are formed".
[1] If you need this acronym spelt out, perhaps you should be on digg.
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 light-minutes (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:electric universe kooks (Score:1, Insightful)
> Can anyone point me to some info on WHY the electric universe people are kooks?
I should think that would be self-evident: they enjoy it.
> Lately I find some of the EU theories easier to accept than "majick" dark matter, dark
> energy, and magnetic fields with no electric current.
Perhaps it is time to review some basic physics.
> "Magnetic reconnection" really?
Wikipedia is your friend.
(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.
Thanks for straightening this out.. (Score:4, Insightful)
On the dayside of Earth (the side closest to the sun),
Re:Teleportation (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe we can use it to teleport our nuclear waste to the sun?
Re:8 light-minutes (Score:2, Insightful)
Magnetic fields do *not* propagate at the speed of light, and I cannot believe fyou got marked "insightful" despite the obviousness that you have no idea what you are talking about. You are talking about astrophysical dynamics, yet you can't even spell "resonance".
Re:Teleportation (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Learn something new every day (Score:3, Insightful)
Every 8 minutes. We call the time 4 minutes later "mini ice minutes."
Lordy, MOD that PARENT up. That's utter gold!
Re:8.32 light minutes (Score:3, Insightful)
The frozen-in condition follows from Maxwell's equations. Data from the ACE satellite show this is exactly the case. Therefore, as the solar wind speed increases, the IMF will reach the Earth faster. In the case of major solar events - such as coronal mass ejections (CME) - the solar wind speed is usually very high and we see the effects of the magnetic field and particles about 1 day after the 'light' (X-rays, visible light, etc) reaches the Earth.