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Scientists Find Hole In Earth's Magnetic Field
Velorium writes "The Earth's magnetic field has been found to have two large holes that are making Earth's surface vulnerable to solar winds. Despite what scientists originally thought, these holes allow 20 times the normal amount of solar particles through when they are facing away from the sun. This is the opposite of what the scientists had first speculated."
...as the demand for tinfoil hats reaches an all-time high.
A bright shaft of light is going to sneak through the hole in the field and melt the Golden Gate Bridge. Just you wait.
At least we can be safe at night. ...Probably...
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
If global warming is presumably caused by SUVs, what are holes in the magnetic field caused by? Too many cell phones?
"The Earth's magnetic field has been found to have two large holes that are making Earth's surface vulnerable to solar winds"
I am wondering what is between the two large holes?
[citation needed]
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Um, for years, haven't we known that the earth's magnetosphere was missing near the poles? (the Aurora Borealis, anyone?)
Screw you guys. Two of my friends died there.
One in each hole.
I left my ACME Megalaser of Doom plugged in overnight, on the 'degaussing' setting. Honestly, I thought it was just on 'charge'.
Awfully sorry. It won't happen again. Promise.
"Three eyes are better than one" -- Lieutenant Columbo
It's the location of the island on LOST. Soon we'll be able to travel in time.
Now, does anyone have a submarine?
There's a hole in the Mag Field dear Liza, a hole.
So fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
So fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, FIX IT,
With what should I fix it, dear Liza dear Liza,
With what should I fix it, dear Liza with what?
With a Greenie, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With a Greenie, dear Henry, dear Henry, with Greenie's (sigh),
Regards
Slashdot Girl
The more I know, the less I know
The language of the /. article compared with the Reuters post seem confusing. It looks like when the fields align (say when you take two magnets and align them -++-) then holes are ripped open at the poles, which can't both be facing away from the sun.
As a side note, how do these storms disrupt power grids? It seems to make sense that bombarding the delicate electronics in satellites with solar radiation would cause damage, but why power transmission?
Sorry. I farted.
i wonder if it would be viable to put large solar arrays in these areas. sounds like a good opportunity for free energy. assuming we don't find a way to fix it (assuming we want to).
Secondly, the induced voltage is proportional to the area times the number of turns times the change in flux density. Since power grids cover huge areas, changes in magnetic flux duensity can cause huge disturbances in network voltages, tripping protection relays and causing other mayhem.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Hrm... tinfoil might not be good enough... might even be counter productive. The high energy particles that smack into something in the tin foil would probably generate a spray of secondary particles, all of which would be more likely to smack into something in your brain than the original particle (which would be more likely to pass right through your "me-jelly").
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Like when you want to post to Slashdot, but all you have is a Nomad.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
...before the LHC "we see nothing". And now, after the LHC was turned on... "oh, look at the too shiny two holes!" - coincidence?
Were the Mayans correct in predicting the world's end for 2012?
Quote from TFA:
"Understanding how these holes form will help them better predict the electrical storms that cause power grid blackouts and the aurora, activity that will peak in 2012 as sunspots hit their maximum level."
Please God let Diablo III come out before then.
News to the scients but not to the Mayans:- They had a system of machino-mechanical-coglet like devices that could pretty much see this coming. The solar activity is predicted to peak in 2012 which correlates to the Mayan calendar end of the world. They didn't offer sacrifices to the sun for nothing, you know!
I read TFA however I am not quite sure what this means.
Did we cause it? Or has this been happening and we just didn't know about it?
Does this affect climate change?
What are the repercussions of these holes?
Thanks!
This is my footer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Satellites, obviously. We (meaning wealthy Westerners) have been disrupting the magnetic field by accelerating masses of metal into orbit for about half a century now. Being thoughtless pigs, we've placed most of our satellites in equatorial orbits and biased the natural, wholesome fields creating the holes we now observe. We prefer these orbits because they best serve the equatorial regions we have monopolized.
Clearly we must redistribute our presence on the surface such that polar orbits satisfy our excessive need for communication. Naturally this will liberate prime equatorial regions for those who prefer simpler lifestyles, simultaneously balancing the field bias and correcting our unfair land use.
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
its been there for such a long time!why worry now jut because we found it?there may be more things that we still don't know. all we have to do is just behave.( just know where we are all living and keep it in good shape) please.
Heh. You guys thought they took it offline because it had a little glitch.
Just disrupt the deflector shield with a tachyon burst.
Spontaneous Combustion Theory might be real after all.
Apparently the holes let "first post"-ers through as well.
Holes in Magnetosphere's will conceal your location from Romulan Warbirds.
I hope.
N41Â53.51988, W087Â36.50574
...there used to be only one but Earth missed a VIG payment.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Did the tag just tell me to tap it?
If Hip-Hop has told me anything, it is to tap any hole that is tappable. I am jealous that the physicists have outdone us again. :(
"Hegelians, who love a synthesis, will probably conclude that he wears a wig." - Bertrand Russell
Wish there was a +1 Brilliant...
we expect Keanu to show up?
Seriously, slashdot itself (the website) should delete any post containing a link to that domain (and others).
Soooo... Is there an ointment for that problem?
Despite what scientists originally thought, these holes allow 20 times the normal amount of solar particles through when they are facing away from the sun. This being opposite from what the scientists had originally speculated.
So I guess scientists originally thought that the holes shot 20 times the normal amount of solar radiation into space when they faced away from the sun?
Perhaps the Earth's magnetic poles are about to flip.
Supposedly it won't kill us all....
They are Magneto's sisters!
Apparently submitted by the department of redundancy department apparently, the problem is that's not what the article actually says.
It the alignment of the fields North-to-South being discussed and nightside effects are not explicitly discussed. Some clarification by a physicist would seem in order.
Notmysig
Trolls, both of you.
You will be shocked... shocked, I tell you... to discover that yours is actually not the first original use of that phrase, though yours is certainly a propos:
http://membres.lycos.fr/marindaaugus/bathroom-gay.html
And I quote:
Please don't tell me this is another thing Al Gore can blame on llamas, diet grains, or methane cows, please.
(Yes, totally unrelated joke. I'm bored tonight. Deal.)
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
The variable is that the sun is at a low point in activity right now. I wonder if we'll see a larger failure rate of satellites orbiting the region. I guess it's extra tin-foil for them too. How would you go about shielding something that big from electrical fields that strong?
...activity that will peak in 2012 as sunspots hit their maximum level.
Could this be what the Mayan's were on about?
The Admin and the Engineer
We prefer these orbits because they best serve the equatorial regions we have monopolized.
I know I should be feeding a troll, but the reason for putting most communications' satellites into equatorial orbits is that these are the only orbits that can be geostationary (satellite stays put relatively to the surface).
You really prefer to be able to leave your antenna's pointed to the same spot in the sky, rather than having to equip it with a motor that follows the satellite around.
Now I know where my pins and needles are. Did I mention needles? Oh my god PLEASE don't look through that holes!!!
ACMEis a large mulitfaceted industrial and services company that owns both a package delivery conglomerate which includes matter replication and temporal transmission systems. Since they are a large monopoly spanning not only Earth but several thousand inhabited systems in several hundred universes they have access to a wide array of products and services and the ability to deliver them to customers who subjectively observe that delivery occurs nearly instantaneously.
Their only failing is having some of the parts for that system made in China.
No one has explained how Bugs Bunny could always get good product though it has been postulated he had the uncanny ability to manipulate events at a quantum level and ensure positive outcomes at the macro level.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Oh my god! A hole! When are they going to patch it?!
Is this something that they've just discovered or something that's normal? Just because they just now found it doesn't mean that it's new.
Can we somehow turn the extra energy coming through that hole into electricity? If so, can regular solar panels do it?
I'm a clueless liberal.
I'm glad to hear that MOTHER earth has 2 holes, because with the thought of having a single hole I was going to start suggesting we call it Father Earth
And not a single goatse.x reference? You're losing it, guys. I was expecting the article to be friggin' tagged 'goatse'.
Release of greenhouse gasses already has a movement founded upon it.
Or, wait...
I think you're on to something. Instead of creating a new man-made catastrophe for this we can just shove it under the Global Warming, uh, Cooling, uh, Climate Change umbrella. It already has widespread political support and is already designed to unjustly enrich third-world countries at the expense of more successful ones. Why create a new way man is destroying the Earth when we can use the current one?
You're a genius.
Extra energy entering the atmosphere, not previously accounted for. Time to recalibrate all those global warming models.
Hey, maybe this is what's causing the climate to warm.
How long will it take this time to M$ patch these security holes they found???
Is there any attempt already made by hackers to exploit these new holes in the Earth shield?
Seriously we could nuke the comet to blanket the earth with anti radiation particles for when the earth's core 'stops'. The Golden Gate Bridge will of course have to be melted.
You insensitive clod!
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
Generally tells you that there is probably a valid point to the post that was labeled as troll because the rater disagreed with it.
Bugs didn't always come out on top. In a rather dark Bugs, Elmer Fudd takes on the visage of a viking hunter, who finally does get the rabbit after he invokes the elements against him. At the very end, as the curtain calls, Bugs does look up and say something like "isn't opera tragic...", but, he was dead in the show!
This is my sig.
Interesting coincidence. Next Indiana Jones movie?
the sun....iss, its the sun stupid
I think the correct course of action is to rotate Earth's Field Harmonics.
[picard]Make it so. [/picard]
Who should we expire next?
After all, we have to blame someone. Since Democrats _do_ nothing, we can can't blame them...
lol jk Happy Holidays
.. the bad summary tag?
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
They do trans-dimensional trans-universal trans-temporal matter replication and transportation but they still have to do the last mile by truck.
Unions suck.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Let's hope the atmosphere doesn't start leaking out too badly.
... a happy ending?
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
Bugs Bunny? Bugs Bunny? Me, myself and I were mostly responsible for the popularization of ACME products here on earth. Believe me I have the scars to prove it! All those episodes starring moi and featuring ACME products, ending with wwhheeeeeezzooo splat and you somehow manage to related ACME with that frackin ADD riddled smart assed yappy wabbit! Let's see where did I put that ACME combination rocket launcher / geek transmutation device. Hope ya like tits as much as you think you do :)
WileC. --super genius, if a bit of a hungry one.
What we need is a hydroelectric magnetosphere regulator...