Electromagnetic Portal Connects Earth to Sun

[Photon1001]

Strange Portal Connects Earth to Sun

Like giant, cosmic chutes between the Earth and sun, magnetic portals open up every eight minutes or so to connect our planet with its host star.

Once the portals open, loads of high-energy particles can travel the 93 million miles (150 million km) through the conduit during its brief opening, space scientists say.

Called a flux transfer event, or FTE, such cosmic connections not only exist but are possibly twice as common as anyone ever imagined, according to space scientists who attended the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Ala., last week.

"Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible," said David Sibeck, an astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Dynamic bursts

Researchers have long known that the Earth and sun must be connected. For instance, particles from the sun are constantly whisked away via the solar wind and often follow magnetic field lines that connect the sun's atmosphere with terra firma. The field lines allow particles to penetrate Earth's magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet.

"We used to think the connection was permanent and that solar wind could trickle into the near-Earth environment anytime the wind was active," Sibeck said. "We were wrong. The connections are not steady at all. They are often brief, bursty and very dynamic."

Several speakers at the workshop outlined the formation of a flux transfer event. One idea is that on the side of Earth facing the sun, our magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. And about every eight minutes, the two fields briefly reconnect, forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth.

Sibeck said to think of the FTE as a giant rolling pin that lies flat along the boundary between the Earth's and sun's magnetic fields. (He noted the rolling pin would have to be malleable so it could pierce through both magnetic fields while lying flat.)

"These FTEs kind of look like roller pins, and they form as little blob roller pins at the tip of the magnetosphere facing the sun," Sibeck told SPACE.com. "They can't decide which way they're going to slide around the Earth, so they grow there into big roller pins and then they take off and sort of spirally roll along [Earth's magnetosphere] like you're pounding out dough."

More than one FTE can form at once, he said, and they stay open for about 15 to 20 minutes.

More to learn

In order to measure such FTEs, spacecraft must not only catch them forming but also be on either end of the magnetic structures (either lengthwise or widthwise). In fact, 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, Sibeck said. While these measurements have nailed down the width of an FTE, the length is still uncertain though one measurement put it at up to five Earth radii. One Earth radius is about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers).

Astrophysicist Jimmy Raeder of the University of New Hampshire used those measurements to develop computer simulations of the portals. He found the cylindrical portals tend to form above Earth's equator and then in December, the FTEs would roll over the North Pole. In July, they roll over the South Pole.

Sibeck thinks the events occur twice as often as previously thought, proposing two types of flux transfer events — active and passive.

When the magnetic cylinders are active, they allow particles to flow through rather easily, forming important conduits of energy for Earth's magnetosphere, Sibeck said. When passive, the cylinders have more resistance to transiting particles. The internal structure of a passive cylinder makes it tougher for particles and magnetic fields to flow through. Sibeck has calculated the properties of passive FTEs and hopes he and his colleagues will hunt for signs of them in data collected with THEMIS and Cluster.

The space scientists at the workshop still want to figure out why the portals form every eight minutes and how magnetic fields inside the cylinders twist and coil.

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mighty interesting stuff, imo. Could this possibly be used as a new energy source?

[HughRuss]

Originally Posted by Photon1001

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mighty interesting stuff, imo. Could this possibly be used as a new energy source?

The transfer of solar wind? I doubt it, though nothing is impossible.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Originally Posted by Photon1001

mighty interesting stuff, imo. Could this possibly be used as a new energy source?

We might as well just invest in fusion research, like ITER.

[Photon1001]

We've been hearing about fusion being the next big thing for a long time now, how close do you think it is to becoming a reality?

I'm also wondering about how these loads of high energy particles travel throughout these flux transfer events, which occur twice as often as was ever predicted. Might it be possible to maintain one of these conduits permanently or even semi-permanently?

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Originally Posted by Photon1001

We've been hearing about fusion being the next big thing for a long time now, how close do you think it is to becoming a reality?

We don't really know how close until we start researching. ITER is currently scheduled to being in 2016-17. Hopefully an Obama administration will be more friendly to funding scientific endeavors.

[HughRuss]

Originally Posted by Schrödinger's Cat

We don't really know how close until we start researching. ITER is currently scheduled to being in 2016-17. Hopefully an Obama administration will be more friendly to funding scientific endeavors.

Unfortunately given the promises by the US government in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the ridiculous military spending that's philandering around the world, I'm pretty sure any president will be cutting out as much spending as possible.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Originally Posted by HughRuss

Unfortunately given the promises by the US government in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the ridiculous military spending that's philandering around the world, I'm pretty sure any president will be cutting out as much spending as possible.

The problem is that many people don't seem to understand that if we want our country to be economically and technologically competitive in the future, we need to fund science and education!!

[HughRuss]

Originally Posted by Schrödinger's Cat

The problem is that many people don't seem to understand that if we want our country to be economically and technologically competitive in the future, we need to fund science and education!!

You're right. But there seems to be a specific political party which seems to think that funding military over anything else builds infrastructure, and bolsters our economy.

[Photon1001]

Originally Posted by Schrödinger's Cat

The problem is that many people don't seem to understand that if we want our country to be economically and technologically competitive in the future, we need to fund science and education!!

I totally agree, they need to understand that increasing our collective knowledge is a solid investment. That science and technology is the central reason that life is improving for everyone.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Robert Wilson, the first director of Fermilab, had to testify in front of Congress to justify the multimillion dollar expenditure and was asked if Fermilab anything to do with national security (the main issue of the day). His reply was the greatest that I've heard:

"It has nothing to do directly with defending the country except to make it worth defending."

[Photon1001]

Well, I've always been more of a solar over nuclear advocate, as far as energy goes anyway, but Fermilab, CERN, particle physics, is going to play an enormous role in developing the nano solar, the atomic solar cells, that many predict will change the face of energy.

But, yes, its so important, we have so much to offer the world in terms of scientific and technological development. The last few years have really been squandered in terms of science, here in America, imo, the fact that anyone would actually have to defend Fermilab, it just goes to show the mindset of Washington on the subject, so hopefully maybe we can start to change things now.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Originally Posted by Photon1001

Well, I've always been more of a solar over nuclear advocate

What is Solar energy, but the product of Nuclear Fusion in the Sun?

[HughRuss]

Originally Posted by Schrödinger's Cat

What is Solar energy, but the product of Nuclear Fusion in the Sun?

I think the disparity was that nuclear energy = radioactive plutonium (I live in Nevada, which for the government = Yucca Mountain), while solar energy = boiling water, or something.

[Angus_Aboot]

Originally Posted by Schrödinger's Cat

The problem is that many people don't seem to understand that if we want our country to be economically and technologically competitive in the future, we need to fund science and education!!

So science and technology only grow with government funding?

[Photon1001]

^I'd suggest watching the video I posted here:

Probably Should Know About This Guy

Also, PetriW posted another good take on the subject in this thread:

The Power of Nightmares

[Angus_Aboot]

Originally Posted by Photon1001

^I'd suggest watching the video I posted here:

Probably Should Know About This Guy

Also, PetriW posted another good take on the subject in this thread:

The Power of Nightmares

I've seen both, and am quite familiar with Tesla, and most people I've met know about some of his contributions, as well as lies and conspiracies surrounding him. He seems to be a good example of science moving forward without government.

[Photon1001]

The government and the patent office squashed much of his ideas, as did big business capitalism.

[Angus_Aboot]

Originally Posted by Photon1001

The government and the patent office squashed much of his ideas, as did big business capitalism.

All the more reason for less government. His ideas were embraced by big business, (minus his rivals of course) he had the opportunity to be the first billionaire.

[HughRuss]

Originally Posted by Photon1001

The government and the patent office squashed much of his ideas, as did big business capitalism.

More so Edison than big business and government.

[Photon1001]

^and J.P. Morgan, and Westinghouse, the patent office, and the Nobel Prize committee, and the Pentagon, and the rest of the ppl who accused him of cheating and lying in his results, being a socialist, etc...