NASA is trying to figure out why when magnetic field lines containing charged particles cross on the sun, things go “boom”. In earth’s magnetic field, we get “magnetic portals” to the sun. Sounds like a movie.
From NASA Science News
August 31, 2009: Magnetic reconnection could be the Universe’s favorite way to make things explode. It operates anywhere magnetic fields pervade space–which is to say almost everywhere. On the sun magnetic reconnection causes solar flares as powerful as a billion atomic bombs. In Earth’s atmosphere, it fuels magnetic storms and auroras. In laboratories, it can cause big problems in fusion reactors. It’s ubiquitous.
The problem is, researchers can’t explain it.
The basics are clear enough. Magnetic lines of force cross, cancel, reconnect and—Bang! Magnetic energy is unleashed in the form of heat and charged-particle kinetic energy.
Right: A cartoon model of magnetic reconnection on the sun. [more]
But how? How does the simple act of crisscrossing magnetic field lines trigger such a ferocious explosion?
“Something very interesting and fundamental is going on that we don’t really understand — not from laboratory experiments or from simulations,” says Melvyn Goldstein, chief of the Geospace Physics Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
NASA is going to launch a mission to get to the bottom of the mystery. It’s called MMS, short for Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, and it consists of four spacecraft which will fly through Earth’s magnetosphere to study reconnection in action. The mission passed its preliminary design review in May 2009 and was approved for implementation in June 2009. Engineers can now start building the spacecraft.
“Earth’s magnetosphere is a wonderful natural laboratory for studying reconnection,” says mission scientist Jim Burch of the Southwest Research Institute. “It is big, roomy, and reconnection is taking place there almost non-stop.”
In the outer layers of the magnetosphere, where Earth’s magnetic field meets the solar wind, reconnection events create temporary magnetic “portals” connecting Earth to the sun. Inside the magnetosphere, in a long drawn-out structure called “the magnetotail,” reconnection propels high-energy plasma clouds toward Earth, triggering Northern Lights when they hit. There are many other examples, and MMS will explore them all.
The four spacecraft will be built at the Goddard Space Flight Center. “Each observatory is shaped like a giant hockey puck, about 12 feet in diameter and 4 feet in height,” says Karen Halterman, MMS Project Manager at Goddard.
Above: An artist’s concept of the four MMS spacecraft flying in formation through the space around Earth. [more]
The mission’s sensors for monitoring electromagnetic fields and charged particles are being built at a number of universities and laboratories around the country, led by the Southwest Research Institute. When the instruments are done, they will be integrated into the spacecraft frames at Goddard. Launch is scheduled for 2014 onboard an Atlas V rocket.
Any new physics MMS learns could ultimately help alleviate the energy crisis on Earth.
“For many years, researchers have looked to fusion as a clean and abundant source of energy for our planet,” says Burch. “One approach, magnetic confinement fusion, has yielded very promising results with devices such as tokamaks. But there have been problems keeping the plasma (hot ionized gas) contained in the chamber.”
“One of the main problems is magnetic reconnection,” he continues. “A spectacular and even dangerous result of reconnection is known as the sawtooth crash. As the heat in the tokamak builds up, the electron temperature reaches a peak and then ‘crashes’ to a lower value, and some of the hot plasma escapes. This is caused by reconnection of the containment field.”
Right: Inside a tokamak. Image credit: Lawrence Berkeley Labs [more]
In light of this, you might suppose that tokamaks would be a good place to study reconnection. But no, says Burch. Reconnection in a tokamak happens in such a tiny volume, only a few millimeters wide, that it is very difficult to study. It is practically impossible to build sensors small enough to probe the reconnection zone.
Earth’s magnetosphere is much better. In the expansive magnetic bubble that surrounds our planet, the process plays out over volumes as large as tens of kilometers across. “We can fly spacecraft in and around it and get a good look at what’s going on,” he says.
That is what MMS will do: fly directly into the reconnection zone. The spacecraft are sturdy enough to withstand the energetics of reconnection events known to occur in Earth’s magnetosphere, so there is nothing standing in the way of a full two year mission of discovery.
Learn more about the mission at the MMS Home Page.
Nogw (10:32:52) :
John F. Hultquist (21:16:11) :
More in detail: It’s a kind of a Tennis game: FeO sends an electron to its partner Fe2O3 in order to reduce it and so attain its equilibrium state (Fe2O3), but Fe2O3 in being reduced to FeO wants to return to its more stable state (Fe2O3) so emits an electron back. So the game goes on and on without ending.
So, John, thanks for your question!
At any rate, the article is somewhat self-contradictory–they do have lab results for magnetic reconnection, and they don’t. Good for NASA if they want to take some in situ measurements to test the theory. I wonder what they will find?
My sense is that there is a strong argument for an electric current being present, and that some of the posters have shown an alternate theory for CMEs
lab results:
http://ve4xm.caltech.edu/Bellan_plasma_page/OPtAniimation.htm
“The parallel filaments of the solar prominence match plasma discharge phenomena in the laboratory, using intense currents very nearly parallel to the magnetic field.” Wal Thornhill, The Electric Universe, pg 56
I would not think the poster, Dr. Svalgaard, would object to having several competing explanations. Ie, “This current does no work” vs. “this current does all the work.”
James F. Evans (10:46:18) :
The experiments that Dr. Svalgaard refers to depend on electric currents to generate the magnetic fields: Turn off the current and the lights go off on the experiment.
Almost all currents in the universe are generated by changing magnetic fields.
but is that absorption inconsequential in the larger scheme of climate?
The 0.1% of TSI is 1.5W/m2
The 1% of UV less than 300 nm is 0.15W/m2 or ten times less.
After all I was right and Leif was misinterpreting my explanation about the “paradoxical” temperature of the solar corona labeling my explanation like “pseudoscience.”
NASA scientists are giving their explanation about the releasing of energy as from the magnetic reconnections. Magnetic energy is released as energy in transit (heat) and internal energy (kinetic energy) of charged particles. There is not alternative explanation for those bangs after magnetic loops reconnections except quantum tunneling.
Now it is NASA which talks about it; however, Leif has not said that NASA’s scientists are not pseudoscientists, neither he has considered their arguments are pseudoscience, uh? ):( (angry face).
Sorry, I made a small mistake in the last paragraph. I wrote:
“Now it is NASA which talks about it; however, Leif has not said that NASA’s scientists are not pseudoscientists…”
I should have writen:
“Now it is NASA which talks about it; however, Leif has not said that NASA’s scientists are pseudoscientists…”
Zeke (12:56:13) :
“This current does no work” vs. “this current does all the work.”
There is a widespread misconception here.
The facts are these:
1) when you have oppositely directed fields, a current is generated [if there are enough particles around to carry it] from the magnetic field.
2) due to instabilities and waves, this current is very hard to keep steady [to wit the difficulties with fusion] and the current may grow dramatically in places
3) the run-away current causes the ‘explosive’ release.
So, currents make the explosions, changing magnetic fields make the currents, the energy for all this comes from the kinetic energy of the plasma. Quite simple. The ‘mystery’ is that we do not have a good microphysical or detailed understanding of exactly how the current breaks down, but there is not doubt that it does, because we directly observe this throughout the Universe, even in our laboratories.
Leif Svalgaard (13:13:04) :
Excuse me professor, but I am just an ignorant blogger who has manufactured synthetic nano magnetite and a few other things.
If.. all currents in the universe are generated by changing magnetic fields.
But what are those magnets made of? FeO+Fe2O3
And those Fe lines in sunspots’ spectrum?
Which one is first the egg or the chicken?
Nogw (13:35:39) :
And those Fe lines in sunspots’ spectrum?
Very, very little magnetism come from Iron. For once, iron loses its magnetism above the Curie temperature of 768°C, and the Sun is hot. Solar magnetism does not come from iron, nor does that of the Earth. Both are generated by a dynamo, that rely on plasma movements to amplify an existing magnetic field. A good [and partly unanswered] question is where the very first magnetic fields in the Universe came from [if you say they were generated from currents, then the question becomes where the currents came from], but that is irrelevant for the everyday working of reconnection as we speak.
But, again, this is not the place for discussing the pseudo-science behind the electric plasma thunderbolt universe. There are tons of websites that can mislead you to your hearts delight. But they do not belong on this serious ‘best science’ blog.
Leif Svalgaard (13:55:37) :
Very, very little magnetism come from Iron
Thanks.
Nogw (14:08:19) :
“Very, very little magnetism come from Iron”
Thanks.
Realizing this is the first step to clear the ‘iron sun’ [and similar] stuff off your mind.
Leif Svalgaard (13:13:04) :
“Almost all currents in the universe are generated by changing magnetic fields.”
This is demonstrably false by accepted Maxwell’s equations.
At best, its a chicken or the egg question.
Electric currents generate a magnetic field.
magnetic fields will induce motion of charged particles (electric current) and influence their motion.
Maxwell’s equations don’t specify a hiarchial order of cause and effect.
The electromotive force will cause an electric current without need of a magnetic field.
Well do I detect a rash of attempts to invoke Ferromagnetism as a viable process on the sun. That particular form of magnetic field seems to be confined to a small number of elements such as Iron and Cobalt plus Nickel.
There are some weird alloys of things like Aluminium that exhibit something like ferromagnetism (I think they are called the Heusler alloys (sp?) but otherwise ferromagnetism is a relatively rare form of magnetism I believe, compared to para and diamagnetism.
But classical Maxwellian Magnetism requires no elements; just moving charges. Is that not the source of the electromagnetic radiation from heated bodies. Electric charge at constant velociy would produce magnetism, but when accelerated, you then have variable currents which can produce electromagnetic radiation.
I have not a clue as to what produces magnetic fields on the sun; but i owuldn’t be looking for iron as a source; whcih is not to say the sun doesn’t have iron; but as Leif has pointed out; at way above the Curie Temperature; where Iron ferromagnetism dies.
James F. Evans (14:23:34) :
The electromotive force will cause an electric current without need of a magnetic field.
How do you create an electromotive force?
It is not about Maxwell’s laws. They are fine and not violated. It is about how in our plasma-dominated Universe one generates currents [of which there are many]. It just so happens that the electric currents are generated from magnetic fields. What is so hard to understand about that? And there the discussion ends.
My thinking, my experiences, says no; they are a convenient way of expressing the ‘field’ strength (some value, at least) is equal (equipotential).
Corrections welcome.
Also: “Fields do not influence fields”
A ‘field’ may affect an already existing field’s effect on a conductor (or another body, as in repulsion or attaction of that body), for example, but, the ‘fields’ (in space, presumed to be propagating, and more correctly perhaps called ‘waves’) themselves do not interact. Were it true (fields affecting fields), radio on earth (anywhere) would not work, as all those fields would modify each other, ad infinitum. (Perhaps is would be better if I said: “Waves do not affect waves”)
Corrections, additions?
.
.
Seems like Earnshaw’s theorem only bans static equilibrium in electric or magnetic fields; it apparently doesn’t object to dynamic equilibrium, which essentially means process control (continuous).
So what is going to go haywire in the cooker, when the control electronics fails; as it undoubtedly will.
Would you get on an airoplane that was controlled directly by a computer program, without human intervention. Not me; I’ll watch the breakup from the ground.
“”” _Jim (15:24:49) :
are magnetic field lines a physical reality,
My thinking, my experiences, says no; they are a convenient way of expressing the ‘field’ strength (some value, at least) is equal (equipotential).
Corrections welcome.
Also: “Fields do not influence fields”
A ‘field’ may affect an already existing field’s effect on a conductor (or another body, as in repulsion or attaction of that body), for example, but, the ‘fields’ (in space, presumed to be propagating, and more correctly perhaps called ‘waves’) themselves do not interact. Were it true (fields affecting fields), radio on earth (anywhere) would not work, as all those fields would modify each other, ad infinitum. (Perhaps is would be better if I said: “Waves do not affect waves”)
Corrections, additions? “””
Well I think your thesis is demonstrably false. If you do the ordinary 8th grade science experiment with the bar magnet and the iron filings, the one thing you will find is that the magnetic field lines do not intersect.
What prevents them form doing so is the interraction between one part of the field and the rest. The fields elbow each other out of each other’s way, until they settle on the only tolerable situation with that particular system.
If fields did not interract with fields, there would be no restrictions on where the field lines could go.
Well the interractions between magnetic fields, and currents, in generating or responding to each other; is patently obvious in the everyday dynamo/generator, where motor and generator actions take place simultaneously; and demonstrate one case of Le Chatalier’s principle, that perturbations in a system create reactions that act in opposition to the perturbing stimulus.
So when you apply an external Voltage (that allows for current flow) to the terminals of a motor, that starts it rotating, the motor then acts as a generator that is directly in opposition to the applied driving Voltage, and cancels most of it out.
Conversely, connecting a load to a rotating generator so that current can flow, will result in a motor action opposing the rotation of the generator armature,that tries to stop it from rotating, so that mechanical energy has to be expended to keep the armature rotating.
High efficiency LEDs have the same problem. In addition to generating light in response to a current flow, they also make efficient photodetectors, that detect the large flux of internal photons that haven’t optically escaped from the structure; and that sets up a counter current that opposes some of the LED drive current; so it appears as if the internal resistance of the diode has suddenly increased.
High effiiency LEDS can corral generated photons, till they find some assymmetry, and escape from the Total Internal Reflection Optical trap, and while they are searching for that escape angle, they crisscross the detecting junction, and many are recaptured to create the oppoing current.
Magnetic and electric fields are duals of each other. Which predominates depends on your frame of reference.
Feynman does a good job explaining it in his physics lectures.
Leif asks:
A good [and partly unanswered] question is where the very first magnetic fields in the Universe came from [if you say they were generated from currents, then the question becomes where the currents came from],
Random motion always generates noise currents. Boltzman.
Leif Svalgaard (15:04:15) :
How do you create an electromotive force?
Do you remember Alexander Volta?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaic_pile
Leif Svalgaard (14:14:49) :
Nogw (14:08:19) :
“Very, very little magnetism come from Iron”
Thanks.
Ok… So magnatism has nothing to do with a ion sun?
George E. Smith (14:39:14) :
Well do I detect a rash of attempts to invoke Ferromagnetism as a viable process on the sun
Well, I don´t know that, but without any constraints to guessing, we could guess that, if the solar system is seen in a long time lapse, what we would see is several coils (planets-provided these have a charge) around and a core, something like a Ruhmkorff induction coil and perhaps something like a induction kiln.
I would like to tell that when John F. Hultquist (21:16:11) made the question:
I have a picture held to the fridge with something called a magnet. Explain that
For me that I have prepared many times synthetic magnetite, the answer became clear at that very moment and it is why I described above.
“”” Nogw (16:51:20) :
George E. Smith (14:39:14) :
Well do I detect a rash of attempts to invoke Ferromagnetism as a viable process on the sun
Well, I don´t know that, but without any constraints to guessing, we could guess that, if the solar system is seen in a long time lapse, what we would see is several coils (planets-provided these have a charge) around and a core, something like a Ruhmkorff induction coil and perhaps something like a induction kiln.
I would like to tell that when John F. Hultquist (21:16:11) made the question:
I have a picture held to the fridge with something called a magnet. Explain that
For me that I have prepared many times synthetic magnetite, the answer became clear at that very moment and it is why I described above. “””
So you just decided to ignore Leif’s very well known admonition that above the Curie Temperature, ferromagnetism in iron totally disappears; it is somewhat akin to superconductivity, in that it only exists below a temperature limit, which is a small fraction of even the cooler regions of the sun. other than that ferromagnetism in no way resembles superconductivity. Interestingly enough superconductivity also can only exist in low magnetic fields, and is suppressed at higher fields; providing one of the practial limits to superconductivity, in that its use to create super magnetic fields, results in destruction of the superconductivity that make that possible.
George E. Smith (14:39:14) : I have not a clue as to what produces magnetic fields on the sun; but i owuldn’t be looking for iron as a source; whcih is not to say the sun doesn’t have iron; but as Leif has pointed out; at way above the Curie Temperature; where Iron ferromagnetism dies.
I seem to recall reading of an experiment not that long ago, with a diamond press, and couple o electrodes. And they determined that hydrogen turns super conductive and basically aligns as a metal under extreme pressures, would it be possible that the extreme turbulance resulting from the fusion taking place would cause currents to be generated from the interaction of the friction/movement of the hydrogen? (I have really no idea, im gonna have to start hitting up my physicist brother on some o this stuff.)
The whole ting is not so hard to visualize. Thermal energy is released by bangs which occur by the reconnection of magnetic lines. We are Ok at this point. The problem emerges when we try to explain those “bangs” when crossed magnetic lines [imaginary boundaries] reconnect. The subsequent unleash of energy is also comprehensible. Thermal energy in particles and kinetic energy in particles (fermionic plasma).
What the cause of those “bangs” is? The question is elementary, my dear Watson. The magnetic energy during the reconnecting magnetic lines is not high enough as to produce bangs of energy so we cannot say that new energy is created from the nothingness; remember that energy is not created and it cannot be destroyed… Exactly, my friend! This is a vivid example of quantum tunneling happening in the corona!
Scientists (I included) must consider the Higgs’ field for giving an answer to this new paradox.
🙂