Solar "Tadpoles" Finally Explained

Abhishek writes " Solar "tadpoles" - dark shadows that seem to wiggle down toward the surface of the sun during flares - may have been explained by University of Warwick astrophysicists. Dr Valery Nakariakov and Dr Erwin Verwichte analysed observations obtained with NASA's "Transition Region And Coronal Explorer" (TRACE) space mission. They theorize that the wiggles of the tadpoles' tails are earth-sized waves similar to the waves in a flag blown by the wind. They think that the waves are produced by a phenomenon known as "negative energy waves"; waves pull energy from the medium they propagate through. The "tadpoles" are optical illusions, rather than real physical structures; the apparently descending tadpole head marks the falling start point of the matter's upward acceleration."

Does this mean

[Scrameustache]

That we don't have to worry about being eaten alive by the Giant Solar Frogs anymore?

SIgh... I hate that feeling when I read an article that solves a mystery I never even heard of. There's the sense of loss: All the wild speculations that never were. The info is still interresting, but I feel like I just walked in when someone was telling the punch line of a joke.

Re:Does this mean

[hackwrench]

Funny, I feel like I just walked in when somebody said. "These are not the droids you are looking for"

Re:Does this mean

[Andy Gardner]

Bah, next they'll be trying to persuade us we're under threat from a giant Mutant Star Goat!

so...

[bird603568]

let me get this straight. From what I understand this is cause by total destructive interference? like in the double slit experinent when there are dark bands.

So many overlords, so little time

[FirienFirien]

I for one welcome our illusionary earthsized tadpole overlords.

sun sperm

[rev_sanchez]

If they really wanted some research money that is what they should call them.

Re:sun sperm

[Anonymous Coward]

Sun Sperm. If they really wanted some research money that is what they should call them.

Just the opposite. They start doing that and they'll lose their funding because it's out of line with the administration's regime of abstinence-only education.

What an awful description!

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Of course these things aren't optical illusions! Optical illusions are artifacts of the human vision system and when you attempt to explain an optical illusion you give a description in terms of sensory organs (eg. this bit appears to wiggle because because the visual systems's motion sensors are still active from previous stimulation yada, yada, yada...). This phenomenon has (tentatively) been explained in terms of physical phenomena taking place at the Sun. So clearly it isn't an optical illusion.

(I guess a case could be made that one aspect of these phenomena is illusory. For example we often imagine that the horizontal motion of the crest of a wave represents a horizontal motion of fluid even if the only motion is vertical. But I'd like to see someone tell the family of a victim of the recent tsunami that the wave was an optical illusion! A wave is a real physical phenomenon even if our vision perceives one aspect of that wave incorrectly.)

Re:What an awful description!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not all optical illusions are "artifacts of the human vision system". Heat wave mirages seem to be water, but are just a refraction of the sky. Looks like water, but it's not. The explanation of this does not rely solely on descriptions of sensory organs.

Re:What an awful description!

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Good example. In this case the human perceptual system is tricked because the path of the light is itself is modified. (Though in this case it could be said that the reason why we are mistaken is that our vision systems are based on the assumption of straight line paths for light so it is a perceptual issue.) Nonetheless, this is definitely not what is happening in the 'tadpole' example.

Re:What an awful description!

[Bloater]

The sea moved several miles inland. How is that only vertical movement?

Re:What an awful description!

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Only a tiny proportion of the water involved actually moved a significant distance horizontally. After the tsunami passed through, most sea water returned more or less where it was before the wave passed through. It's only at the very end, as the wave hit the coastline, that a sizeable amount of water was irreversibly displaced horizontally.

Irreversibly?

[leonbrooks]

It all drained back to the sea pretty smartly - taking a lot of flora and buildings with it. To me, that looks like reversible flow.

Given the enormous seafloor displacements at the epicenter, a significant amount of water must have been orizontally displaced to somewhere other then the Indonesian coastlines on a reasonably irreversible basis.

WRT the handle and tagline: What's so special about 262537412640768000? And... There are no barbers.

Re:Irreversibly?

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

262537412640768000? Do you really think exp(pi*sqrt(163)) can be an integer? That's a transcendental function there. And sure there are barbers! But are there any barbers who shave everyone in town except those who shave themselves?

Anyway...back to waves. Yes, it eventually drained back. But the draining wasn't wave motion. Typically in wave motion water travels back and forth, not with the wave. But that clearly breaks down when a wave breaks at the coast.

You're right that there was probably some displ

Re:What an awful description!

[merlin_jim]

I'm not sure I totally agree with you that it isn't an optical illusion, though I understand your reasoning.

I look at it this way; our vision system is built to identify objects based on parallax for items close enough for stereo to work, and based on silhouettes for items farther away. We perceive an object moving towards the sun because the object is a persistant motive silhouette, while what is actually occuring is a fountain of material moving in the OTHER direction with a negative energy wave travers

Foolish Lex Luthor

[Yeechang Lee]

Bah! Everyone knows that the so-called "tadpoles" are actually living sun creatures. Fortunately, they're unlikely to attack Earth again because the Superfriends defeated them [cnet.com] after Lex Luthor foolishly tried to strike a deal with the creatures.

negative waves

[LazyBoy]

Always with the negative waves, Moriarity. Always with the negative waves.

Bummer

[__aaasvk1266]

I hoped the article would explain why Solaris capable Tadpole computers are so exspensive:

http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mob il e/bullfrog/