Discovery of Saturn’s auroral heartbeat
An international team of scientists led by Dr Jonathan Nichols of the University of Leicester has discovered that Saturn’s aurora, an ethereal ultraviolet glow which illuminates Saturn’s upper atmosphere near the poles, pulses roughly once per Saturnian day.
The length of a Saturnian day has been under much discussion since it was discovered that the traditional ‘clock’ used to measure the rotation period of Saturn, a gas giant planet with no solid surface for reference, apparently does not keep good time.
Saturn, like all magnetised planets, emits radio waves into space from the polar regions. These radio emissions pulse with a period near to 11 h, and the timing of the pulses was originally, during the Voyager era, thought to represent the rotation of the planet. However, over the years the period of the pulsing of the radio emissions has varied, and since the rotation of a planet cannot be easily sped up or slowed down, the hunt for the source of the varying radio period has become one of the most perplexing puzzles in planetary science.
Now, in a paper to be published in Geophysical Research Letters (August 6), Nichols et al. use images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of Saturn’s auroras obtained between 2005-2009 to show that, not only do the radio emissions pulse, but the auroras beat in tandem with the radio.
Dr Nichols said: “This is an important discovery for two reasons. First, it provides a long-suspected but hitherto missing link between the radio and auroral emissions, and second, it adds a critical tool in diagnosing the cause of Saturn’s irregular heartbeat.”
Auroras, more commonly known as the “northern lights” on Earth, are caused when charged particles in space are funnelled along a planet’s magnetic field into the planet’s upper atmosphere near the poles, whereupon they impact the atmospheric particles and cause them to glow. This happens when a planet’s magnetic field is stressed by, for example, the buffeting from the stream of particles emitted by the Sun, or when moons such as Enceladus or Io expel material into the near-planet space.
Saturn’s radio waves were long suspected to be emitted by the charged particles as they hurtle toward the poles, but no radio-like pulsing had been observed in Saturn’s aurora, an enigmatic disconnect between the two supposedly-related phenomena.
However, Nichols et al. found that by using the clock of the radio pulsing to organise the auroral data, and stacking the results from all the Hubble Saturn auroral images obtained from 2005-2009 on top of each other, the auroral pulsing finally revealed itself.
Dr Nichols added: “This confirms that the auroras and the radio emissions are indeed physically associated, as suspected. This link is important, since it implies that the pulsing of the radio emissions is being imparted by the processes driving Saturn’s aurora, which in turn can be studied by the NASA/ESA spacecraft Cassini, presently in orbit around Saturn. It thus takes us a significant step toward solving the mystery of the variable radio period.”
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peterhodges says:
August 5, 2010 at 11:26 am
sorry leif. i guess the physics of plasma have no effect on anything. the sun is not plasma. the suns atmosphere is not plasma. planetary atmospheres have no plasma effects. there is no plasma in space, and therefore no electricity in space.
It seems to me that what you just said is in contradiction with what you otherwise state, so perhaps you should your concepts clear first.
peterhodges says:
August 5, 2010 at 11:26 am
BB/standard cosmology is not empirical science, it is religion posing as science.
And perhaps conflicting with other religions, hence your denial.
This discussion is “mesmerizing”, or rather electromagnetizing?
Forgot the credits: “Flintstones” is a T.M. of Hanna Barbera; however “The Flintstones Universe” not already patented but obvious.
“A stream of charged particles is not an electrical current.”
Funny, as in “electricity is not electric until it short circuits.”
Enneagram says:
August 5, 2010 at 11:53 am
This discussion is “mesmerizing”, or rather electromagnetizing?
You bring nothing to the table.
Forgot the credits: “Flintstones” is a T.M. of Hanna Barbera; however “The Flintstones Universe” not already patented but obvious.
In the Flintstones Universe the physics is rock-solid, no?
Leif Svalgaard says:
August 5, 2010 at 10:44 am
“The important point is that that electricity is generated by moving conducting [but neutral] plasma across magnetic fields or induced in the conducting [but neutral] plasma by rapidly changing magnetic fields.”
Rapidly changing magnetic fields have interesting applications in brain science.
“Transcranial magnetic stimulation has been used to investigate almost all areas of cognitive neuroscience.” The rapidly changing magnetic field is produced, as most magnetic fields are, by an electric current, in a stimulation coil.
Good afternoon Dr. S.
To Anthony Watts’ continued success in understanding earth’s weather and climate.
Hooray! Finally a result, coined new scientific term
One legged magnetic Universe
And guess what, it is accepted by the ‘science supremo’ of WUWT.
Leif Svalgaard says:
August 5, 2010 at 10:44 am
“Everything of interest is generated by electricity, on the Sun, in space, in the upper atmosphere. The important point is that that electricity is generated by moving conducting [but neutral] plasma across magnetic fields or induced in the conducting [but neutral] plasma by rapidly changing magnetic fields.”
So, electricity (leif’s preferred definition) is generated upon colliding flows of magnetized plasma, this plasma, free electrons and ions, sometimes referred to as “electrified gas” by NASA, is seperated by Electric Double Layers into streams of electrons and ions going in opposite directions.
Scientists have empirically observed & measured these Electric Double Layers in association with Earth’s aurora.
So, now, Saturn’s aurora is the subject of the post.
Somewhere, it seems, electricity, plasma, and magnetism, neatly shortened to “electromagntism” comes into play in the mysteries of Saturn’s physical dynamics.
Just as Dr. Svalgaard wrote above.
leif, you areprojecting.
regardless of your personal beliefs, isn’t your work independent of BB/standard cosmology?
Vuk etc says:
August 5, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Hooray! Finally a result, coined new scientific term
One legged magnetic Universe
Don’t declare victory yet….the other leg is made of anti-matter 🙂
….and only the initiates can see it..
Zeke the Sneak says:
August 5, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Are you suggesting an electric shocks therapy?
peterhodges says:
August 5, 2010 at 1:25 pm From the link you just gave:
Paleo-anthropologically speaking, this faculty probably had survival value as a self-defense mechanism when homo sapiens’ intellectual capacity to detect deception in others improved to the point that the only sure hope to deceive was for deceivers to be self-deceived and therefore behave as if they were being truthful.
Morals: Lie to others if you want but never to yourselves!…
Zeke the Sneak says:
August 5, 2010 at 12:22 pm
The rapidly changing magnetic field is produced, as most magnetic fields are, by an electric current, in a stimulation coil.
And how do you produce the electric current?
peterhodges says:
August 5, 2010 at 1:25 pm
regardless of your personal beliefs, isn’t your work independent of BB/standard cosmology?
My beliefs have nothing to do with my work. But my work is somewhat independent of BB, but only to a point, since BB follows from observations and the same physical laws. Given the data and the physical laws you can’t get around the BB.
James F. Evans says:
August 5, 2010 at 12:35 pm
So, electricity (leif’s preferred definition) is generated upon colliding flows of magnetized plasma
No, that is not the way it works except in specialized circumstances. Good ole regular electricity [on Earth and in space] is generated by moving a conductor with respect to a magnet [or vice versa]. Here is how the electricity you use every day is generated: http://www.howeverythingworks.org/supplements/electric_power_generation.pdf
“BB follows from observations” is a claim that is not true. Observations are curve fitted backwards to fit the BB-theory, a theory which stems from religious fantasies inside the head of a catholic priest. Even Einstein acknowledged its creationist nature, he said: “This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened.” It is a beautiful theory, but nothing more. There is no reason to belive it to be more true than Genesis Chapter 1. The amount of contradictions in standard BB-cosmology renders it invalid as far as science goes, but stating what should be blatantly obvious by now is of course crackpottery on the brink of devil worshipping.
Big de’Bunk says:
August 5, 2010 at 3:04 pm
BB-cosmology renders it invalid as far as science goes, but stating what should be blatantly obvious by now is of course crackpottery on the brink of devil worshipping.
Indeed it would be crackpottery. Are you indulging in that?
I don’t believe in creationism Mr. Svalgaard. Do you?
Big de’Bunk says:
August 5, 2010 at 4:06 pm
I don’t believe in creationism Mr. Svalgaard. Do you?
Particles are created every second. We make positrons in our ‘atom smashers’ all the time. “Production: New research has dramatically increased the quantity of positrons that experimentalists can produce. Physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have used a short, ultra-intense laser to irradiate a millimetre-thick gold target and produce more than 100 billion positrons.”
lief,
Wrong.
There is empirical observation of magnetized plasma flows “colliding” in space and generating Electric Double Layers, not just in “specialized circumstances”.
It is true that laboratory plasma experiments can produce all these electromagnetic effects, but that is all the more evidence that the fundamental force of electromagnetism is scale independent.
But what is so much more evidence than the laboratory plasma experiments is the empirical field observation & measurement of the electric fields consistent with the presence of Electric Double Layers in association with Earth’s aurora.
Dr. Svalgaard wrote: “Here is how the electricity you use every day is generated…”
NO!
What we are discussing is how electricity is generated in space.
And, it is generated when: “colliding flows of magnetized plasma, this plasma, free electrons and ions, sometimes referred to as “electrified gas” by NASA, is seperated by Electric Double Layers into streams of electrons and ions going in opposite directions.”
We’ve been over this before and I’m happy to go over it, again, if need be.
I’d be happy to go through all the links to academic papers supporting my position, but I’ve presented them before and at the end of the day, you had to agree:
Electric Double Layers have been observed & measured in space.
Electric Double Layers generate electric currents.
REPLY: You might want to at least get his name spelled correctly and capitalized before you get too cocky about your “Wrong” position. – Anthony
Correction: Dr. Leif Svalgaard.
Thank you for the correction.
But how do you know I’m wrong?
James F. Evans says:
August 5, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Electric Double Layers generate electric currents.
As you said, we have been over this before, and magnetic reconnection is indeed a place where electric currents are generated by magnetic fields of opposite direction being pressed together by movement of the plasma they are frozen into. But this only happens on occasions when you actually have such a configuration, e.g. briefly in solar flares, and in the generation of active aurorae. Magnetic reconnection is actually an excellent illustration of how to generate electric current from magnetic fields. Thank you for finally believing and agreeing with this. Perhaps you can then settle back in your chair with your newfound knowledge and relax.
James F. Evans says:
August 5, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Electric Double Layers generate electric currents.
You can learn more about reconnection here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_reconnection
A somewhat more technical exposition is here [but well worth a read]:
http://www.phys.washington.edu/users/sharpe/486/schillacif.pdf
James F. Evans says:
August 5, 2010 at 4:38 pm
But how do you know I’m wrong?
You show that by what you say, easy as that. Perhaps ‘wrong’ is not the right word, ‘ignorant’ or ‘learning-resistant’ might be better.
Everything in the Solar System has a cycle or rhythm.
(but, shhh, don’t tell Leif that…) 🙂
.