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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?)
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
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
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.
Heh. You guys thought they took it offline because it had a little glitch.
Just disrupt the deflector shield with a tachyon burst.
Apparently the holes let "first post"-ers through as well.
...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
Getting them to stay there would be pretty hard. Plus the particles in question are mostly protons and some free electrons. Probably not so good for your solar collector.
No, we didn't cause it. Yes, it's always been happening, but yes we always knew about it. We just had one of the details backwards - more particles get through when the sun and earth fields are aligned rather than opposite, as was previously believed.
No, it doesn't affect climate change. The repercussions is that the poles get aurorae (revolutionary, I know, particularly as I grew up under them), and that if we get a really bad solar storm with the right conditions it can be bad for the power grid. As has been dramatically demonstrated several times ever since we started building power grids.
It's a mediocre article, and a horrendous summary.
The new finding is that more particles get through when the Earth's field and the Sun's field are aligned in the same direction. It was previously believed that the opposite was true - more particles get through when the fields are oppositely aligned. I assume that's what the summary meant by "facing 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
It is NOT the Mayan calendar end of the world, it's just the end of this number of "places" in the recording system. It's designed so that when you run out of places, you can essentially just cycle it around, and you're in the next "age" as it were. See here for a fairly reasonable explanation. Theoretically, you could also just add another counter to it for the "age" that you're in and cycle the rest (like adding one more decimal place as we do when we count from 9999 to 10000 for example). Despite all this, it's still a pretty cool event from the perspective of the Mayan calendar or otherwise (note that they did have a good REASON for this date, which is far more interesting than a boring old end of world prophecy - see the link).
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
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:
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?
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.
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
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.
Most of the site appears to be crap, and the last paragraph of the page I linked to is also crap, but the views of the person writing it in no way reflect on the fact that he did raise perfectly valid, scientific and interesting points. For reference, I have no affiliation with that website and just stumbled across that page with a quick google search for "mayan calendar" 2012 "plane of the ecliptic". It's the astronomical aspect of the occurrence that I'm interested in, not any mystical mumbo-jumbo surrounding it. (unfortunately, it's actually pretty hard to find links that AREN'T full of mystical mumbo-jumbo and I was too lazy to go hunting for them)
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan