Starts With A Bang!

The Earth, The Sun, and Magnets

Remember when physics was simple to understand? You learned about simple things like magnets, which had a north pole and a south pole. North repels north and south repels south, but opposite poles attract each other.

Although magnetism is strongest directly at the poles, you can still feel magnetism’s effects further away. This is because magnetic fields permeate all of space, even far away from the magnet. We can draw magnetic field lines to represent the strength of the magnetic field: a higher density of lines means a stronger field.

Well, although planetary bodies like the Earth are alive with a molten core, and therefore are a little more complicated than simple bar magnets, the Earth also has a north magnetic pole and a south magnetic pole, and has its own magnetic field. Not only does this make your compass needles point north, but it also helps some animals orient themselves to find north.

Well not only does the Earth have a magnetic field, but the Sun does, too. The Sun’s magnetic field is more powerful (which you might expect), and extends out much more influentially than the Earth’s does.

So SWAB fan Mike points out that these two objects, the Sun and the Earth, both have magnetic fields, and they can interact. Remember that opposite poles attract!

What do you suppose would happen if the Sun’s north pole saw the Earth’s south pole, or if the Sun’s south pole saw the Earth’s north pole?

Do you think there’s a chance that some of the Sun’s magnetic field lines could connect to the Earth, and that some of the Earth’s lines could connect to the Sun? What would that look like?

The answer is you would make invisible tubes in space where the magnetic field was strong. Normally the Earth’s magnetic field protects us from particles that come from the Sun, but when you get these magnetic tubes, particles can go straight from the Sun to the Earth without being deflected away.

Could we ever detect these particles? I suppose we’d have to set up a satellite in space where the magnetic tube ought to be in order to see it. Know how smart scientists are? They already sent them up there: Europe’s four Cluster spacecraft and NASA’s five THEMIS probes have already looked for them. Results?

Cylindrical portals form every eight minutes, and allow particles to pass directly from the Sun to the Earth. More details?

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.

Want to know what’s really neat? 10 years ago, many leading scientists didn’t think these cylindrical tubes would exist. Now, we’re discovering that they’re even more abundant than the most optimistic predictions. Isn’t science great?

Next time someone expresses some pessimism about what science can accomplish, I’m going to remember those three little words that are still in my head, yes, we can!