Surprise from the Edge of the Solar System

G

Geriatrix

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http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/09jun_bigsurprise/
June 9, 2011: NASA's Voyager probes are truly going where no one has gone before. Gliding silently toward the stars, 9 billion miles from Earth, they are beaming back news from the most distant, unexplored reaches of the solar system.

Mission scientists say the probes have just sent back some very big news indeed.

It's bubbly out there.

"The Voyager probes appear to have entered a strange realm of frothy magnetic bubbles," says astronomer Merav Opher of Boston University. "This is very surprising."

According to computer models, the bubbles are large, about 100 million miles wide, so it would take the speedy probes weeks to cross just one of them. Voyager 1 entered the "foam-zone" around 2007, and Voyager 2 followed about a year later. At first researchers didn't understand what the Voyagers were sensing--but now they have a good idea.

"The sun's magnetic field extends all the way to the edge of the solar system," explains Opher. "Because the sun spins, its magnetic field becomes twisted and wrinkled, a bit like a ballerina's skirt. Far, far away from the sun, where the Voyagers are now, the folds of the skirt bunch up."

When a magnetic field gets severely folded like this, interesting things can happen. Lines of magnetic force criss-cross and "reconnect". (Magnetic reconnection is the same energetic process underlying solar flares.) The crowded folds of the skirt reorganize themselves, sometimes explosively, into foamy magnetic bubbles.

"We never expected to find such a foam at the edge of the solar system, but there it is!" says Opher's colleague, University of Maryland physicist Jim Drake.

Theories dating back to the 1950s had predicted a very different scenario: The distant magnetic field of the sun was supposed to curve around in relatively graceful arcs, eventually folding back to rejoin the sun. The actual bubbles appear to be self-contained and substantially disconnected from the broader solar magnetic field.

Energetic particle sensor readings suggest that the Voyagers are occasionally dipping in and out of the foam—so there might be regions where the old ideas still hold. But there is no question that old models alone cannot explain what the Voyagers have found.

Says Drake: "We are still trying to wrap our minds around the implications of these findings."

The structure of the sun's distant magnetic field—foam vs. no-foam—is of acute scientific importance because it defines how we interact with the rest of the galaxy. Researchers call the region where the Voyagers are now "the heliosheath." It is essentially the border crossing between the Solar System and the rest of the Milky Way. Lots of things try to get across—interstellar clouds, knots of galactic magnetism, cosmic rays and so on. Will these intruders encounter a riot of bubbly magnetism (the new view) or graceful lines of magnetic force leading back to the sun (the old view)?

The case of cosmic rays is illustrative. Galactic cosmic rays are subatomic particles accelerated to near-light speed by distant black holes and supernova explosions. When these microscopic cannonballs try to enter the solar system, they have to fight through the sun's magnetic field to reach the inner planets.

"The magnetic bubbles could be our first line of defense against cosmic rays," points out Opher. "We haven't figured out yet if this is a good thing or not."

On one hand, the bubbles would seem to be a very porous shield, allowing many cosmic rays through the gaps. On the other hand, cosmic rays could get trapped inside the bubbles, which would make the froth a very good shield indeed.

"We'll probably discover which is correct as the Voyagers proceed deeper into the froth and learn more about its organization1," says Opher. "This is just the beginning, and I predict more surprises ahead."
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T

The_Unbeliever

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Surprised the two probes still is alive after all these decades.

Modern stuff won't last that long.
 
Sonic2k

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The_Librarian said:
Surprised the two probes still is alive after all these decades.

Modern stuff won't last that long.
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Actually, modern space hardware is even more reliable.
What you don't know is that both these probes, sent up in the 70's work, tolerating many hardware failures, some of which could not be worked around with redundant units. One of the probes lost 1/3 of its random-access memory when going past a planet back in the '80s
 
ichigo

ichigo

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Another thing to prove that the Scientists theories as always are bogus ideas

Everytime something new gets discovered they get proven wrong

Imagine when they actually find out what a blackhole actually is. Maybe theres a happy funland at the end of it.
 
K

K3NS31

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Merenwenrago said:
More like stating the truth of Scientists and their lies

Look at all their theories they thought were true and in end they were false

One of them they thought the two triceratops species were different animals yet similar looking then they found out one was the young version and other was old version of the same animal.

Can't take anything they say as fact, cause their stories keep change everytime a new thing is discovered
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*Sigh*
That's the beauty of science. When you discover new things, you learn from them and incorporate them into current or new theories.
Unlike say, a religious book I could mention, which just gets more and more wrong the more we learn
 
bin3

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Merenwenrago said:
More like stating the truth of Scientists and their lies

Look at all their theories they thought were true and in end they were false
One of them they thought the two triceratops species were different animals yet similar looking then they found out one was the young version and other was old version of the same animal.
Can't take anything they say as fact, cause their stories keep change everytime a new thing is discovered
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LOL: That made my day. Do yourself the favor and try to figure out the difference between a theory and a fact. And here's the thing: Science doesn't need you to believe anything. Science does provide you the means to work it out yourself should you be so inclined
 
K

K3NS31

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bin3 said:
LOL: That made my day. Do yourself the favor and try to figure out the difference between a theory and a fact. And here's the thing: Science doesn't need you to believe anything. Science does provide you the means to work it out yourself should you be so inclined
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Well said Sir
 
ichigo

ichigo

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bin3

bin3

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Merenwenrago said:
http://exposingliesinevolution.blogspot.com/2007/05/compiled-from-scientific-facts-in-bible.html
Very interesting article explaining what you saying I found
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I can't justify that with an answer. In my humble opinion, that's one of the biggest loads of crap I have ever had the misfortune to read (exposingliesinevolution.blogspot.com)

A few ones:

"The Bible claimed that the earth freely floated in space. Science then thought that the earth sat on a large animal. We now know that the earth has a free float in space"
Really ? And here I was under the impression that the earth was captured within the gravitational force of the sun.

"The Bible claims that all creation is made of invisible material. Science then was ignorant of the subject. We now know that the entire creation is made of invisible elements called "atoms.""
Really ? So what's electrons, protons, quarks ? Invisible?

"We now know that blood is the source of life. If you lose your blood, you will lose your life."

Really ? Hmm, don't think I need to say anything more ...

"But did you know that radio waves move at the speed of light? This is why you can have instantaneous wireless communication with someone on the other side of the earth"

Really ? Oh wow, somebody should tell Telkom: Will really help my ping ...

And then I just got bored ...

Let me end this by saying ...

"Really ?"
 
ichigo

ichigo

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bin3 said:
I can't justify that with an answer. In my humble opinion, that's one of the biggest loads of crap I have ever had the misfortune to read (exposingliesinevolution.blogspot.com)

A few ones:

"The Bible claimed that the earth freely floated in space. Science then thought that the earth sat on a large animal. We now know that the earth has a free float in space"
Really ? And here I was under the impression that the earth was captured within the gravitational force of the sun.

"The Bible claims that all creation is made of invisible material. Science then was ignorant of the subject. We now know that the entire creation is made of invisible elements called "atoms.""
Really ? So what's electrons, protons, quarks ? Invisible?

"We now know that blood is the source of life. If you lose your blood, you will lose your life."

Really ? Hmm, don't think I need to say anything more ...

"But did you know that radio waves move at the speed of light? This is why you can have instantaneous wireless communication with someone on the other side of the earth"

Really ? Oh wow, somebody should tell Telkom: Will really help my ping ...

And then I just got bored ...

Let me end this by saying ...

"Really ?"
Click to expand...

porn$tar said:
That website's only interesting if you're a pre-pubescent girl easily distracted by colourful flashing things.
Click to expand...

rather reply with your opinions in my debate topic since I made it there now instead of this topic
 
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