Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
united portals randhir
presented
by science at nasa
a favorite theme of science fiction is the portal
and extraordinary opening in space or time that connects travelers to distant
realms
a good portal is the shortcut
a guide
a door into the unknown
if only the actually existed
it turns out that they do sort of
and a nasa funded researcher at the university of iowa has figured out how
to find them
we call them exports or electron diffusion regions
explains plasma physicists
jack's cutter of the university of iowa
their places where the magnetic field of birth
connects to the magnetic field of the sun
creating an uninterrupted path leading from our home planet
to the sun's atmosphere ninety three million miles away
observations by nasa steam the spacecraft and europe's cluster probes
suggest that these magnetic portals opened and closed dozens of times each
day
there typically located a few tens of thousands of kilometers from her with
the geomagnetic field meets the on russian solar wind
most portals are small in short lived
others are yawning vast
and sustained
energetic particles can flow through the openings
heating earth's upper atmosphere
sparking geomagnetic storms
and igniting bright polar perot's
nasa is planning a mission called m m s
short for magnetosphere eat multiscale mission
due to launch in twenty fourteen to study the phenomenon
bristling with energetic particle detectors and magnetic sensors
before spacecraft event and that's will spread out interests magnetosphere and
surround the portals to observe how they work
just one problem
finding them
magnetic portals are invisible
unstable and elusive
the open and close without warning
and there are no signposts to guide us in notes qatar
actually there are signposts and scatter has found them
portals form via the process of magnetic reconnection
mingling lines of magnetic force from the sun and birth criss-cross enjoined
to create the openings
explants are where the criss-cross takes place
the sudden joining of magnetic fields can propel jets of charged particles
from the export creating and electron diffusion region
to learn how to pinpoint these events
scudder looked at data from a space probe that orbited earth more than ten
years ago
in the late nineteen nineties
neces polish spacecraft spend years in hurts magnetosphere explain scottr
indeed encountered many exploits during its mission
because polar carried sensors similar to those of m m s
scudder decided to see how in tex point looked to polar
using polar data
we have found five simple combinations of magnetic field and energetic particle
measurements that elyssa when we come across and x point or an electron
diffusion region
a single space craft properly instrumented can make these measurements
this means that a single member of the m m s constellation using the diagnostics
can find a portal and alert other members of the constellation
mission planners long thought that m m s might have to spend a year or so they're
going to find portals before it could study them
scudder's work shortcuts the process
allowing m m s to get to work without delay
it's a shortcut worthy of the best portals of fiction
only this time the portals or real
and with the new signposts we know how to find them
for a portal to more nasa science news
visit science dot nasa backed out