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."

Comments

The price of aluminum will skyrocket...

[fucket]

...as the demand for tinfoil hats reaches an all-time high.

Re:The price of aluminum will skyrocket...

[MarkRose]

Which is somewhat ironic, because the usual way of smelting aluminum generates incredibly big magnetic fields as part of the electrolysis process. I took a tour through a facility once, and there was no limit to the number of paper clips you could stack end-to-end on the tour bus while in the plant. Pretty neat.

Re:Hmmm....

[Anonymous Coward]

If global warming is presumably caused by SUVs, what are holes in the magnetic field caused by? Too many cell phones?

The results of a runaway experiment after "Bring your daughter to work day" at Aperture Science?

Re:I saw this in "The Core"

[supernova_hq]

At least we can be safe at night.

...these holes allow 20 times the normal amount of solar particles through when they are facing away from the sun

Well, so much for being safe at night...

There's a hole

[Slashdotgirl]

There's a hole in the Mag Field, dear Liza, dear Liza,

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

Re:There's a hole

[Anonymous Coward]

With what should I fix it, dear Liza dear Liza

With Henries, of course!

Re:There's a hole

[dgatwood]

Now that is funny. Guess it went over the moderators' heads. A Henry is a unit of inductance. Grossly oversimplified, inductance is basically the property by which current produces an electromagnetic field....

ironic in the Alanis Morissette sense

[Gary W. Longsine]

Like when you want to post to Slashdot, but all you have is a Nomad.

Re:Earth's Taint

[Waffle Iron]

"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?

A region of the earth known as the magnetic perineum.

Bad Summary?

[NotmyNick]

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.

Apparently submitted by the department of redundancy department apparently, the problem is that's not what the article actually says.

Scientists once believed that the particles entered when the sun's magnetic field was aligned opposite to that of the Earth's. But findings presented at the meeting show that 20 times more solar particles enter the Earth's magnetic field when it is aligned in the same direction as the sun's magnetic field.

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.