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perrodetokio
Skeptic Friend
275 Posts |
 Posted - 12/22/2008 : 07:09:16
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| NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics. |
Source and more info
Since I am not that educated in science I wanted to know what you all make of this, which to me (and my ignorance) sounds big.
Also: Is this the right folder to place this? Since there is only a "pseudoscience" folder and not a "science" one, I thought this astronomy folder was more appropriate. Would you move it if itīs not?
Cheers!
(edited to fix link)
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"Yes I have a belief in a creator/God but do not know that he exists." Bill Scott
"They are still mosquitoes! They did not turn into whales or lizards or anything else. They are still mosquitoes!..." Bill Scott
"We should have millions of missing links or transition fossils showing a fish turning into a philosopher..." Bill Scott |
Edited by - perrodetokio on 12/22/2008 07:21:33
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2008 : 07:44:56 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by perrodetokio
Also: Is this the right folder to place this? Since there is only a "pseudoscience" folder and not a "science" one, I thought this astronomy folder was more appropriate. |
This is indeed the appropriate folder.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2008 : 08:33:24 [Permalink]
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| This belongs in the Geomagnetic Dynamo folder. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2008 : 09:51:21 [Permalink]
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I watched a show on the magnetosphere just a few days ago, but I can't find it online. (It would have helped if I had taken note of what channel presented it. I looked over at the Nova site but couldn't find it.) At any rate, some scientists are wondering if this dangerous thinning of the field over the equator may be the beginning of a magnetic field reversal.
Magnetic field reversals
Based upon the study of lava flows of basalt throughout the world, it has been proposed that the Earth's magnetic field reverses at intervals, ranging from tens of thousands to many millions of years, with an average interval of approximately 250,000 years. The last such event, called the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, is theorized to have occurred some 780,000 years ago. |
Even if not, this weakening of the field could present real dangers to satellites, astronauts and if it weakens enough, serous problems with all kinds of things that depend on electronics to function, as well as life in the effected regions here on earth due to the increased levels of radiation from the sun making it through the natural barrier of the earths magnetosphere. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2008 : 13:04:05 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
I watched a show on the magnetosphere just a few days ago, but I can't find it online. (It would have helped if I had taken note of what channel presented it. I looked over at the Nova site but couldn't find it.) At any rate, some scientists are wondering if this dangerous thinning of the field over the equator may be the beginning of a magnetic field reversal.
Magnetic field reversals
Based upon the study of lava flows of basalt throughout the world, it has been proposed that the Earth's magnetic field reverses at intervals, ranging from tens of thousands to many millions of years, with an average interval of approximately 250,000 years. The last such event, called the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, is theorized to have occurred some 780,000 years ago. |
Even if not, this weakening of the field could present real dangers to satellites, astronauts and if it weakens enough, serous problems with all kinds of things that depend on electronics to function, as well as life in the effected regions here on earth due to the increased levels of radiation from the sun making it through the natural barrier of the earths magnetosphere.
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But the good news: This deadly global cataclysm is not man-made, right? Woo-hoo! Not our fault!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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UniConst
New Member
15 Posts |
 Posted - 12/22/2008 : 13:30:43 [Permalink]
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| I watched a show on the magnetosphere just a few days ago, but I can't find it online. |
Kil:Saw it too. Unless mistaken,think that twas on the Discovery channel.
If it does happen, think that we most-all will be 'goners'. As in "kaputski" or "terminada". |
The Universe is not constant. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2008 : 13:40:24 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by UniConst
| I watched a show on the magnetosphere just a few days ago, but I can't find it online. |
Kil:Saw it too. Unless mistaken,think that twas on the Discovery channel.
If it does happen, think that we most-all will be 'goners'. As in "kaputski" or "terminada".
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I saw it as well. Damn, what was that show called? I even looked it up on IMDB. It had a sort of generic title, like "Real Science" or something similar. Each episode of the show focuses on one way the world might end, from global warming to an asteroid impact to the disappearance of the magnetic field. It was quite good, if slightly sensationalistic. I think they could have stressed the fact that no mass extinctions have ever been conclusively shown to coincide with a magnetic field reversal. In fact, early man lived through several, apparently without any ill effect. Of course, also without a dependence on modern electronics.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Giant breach in Earth’s magnetic field
