From the Southwest Research Institute:
For immediate release
San Antonio — Sept. 29, 2010 — The unusual “knot” in the bright, narrow ribbon of neutral atoms emanating in from the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space appears to have “untied,” according to a paper published online in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Researchers believe the ribbon, first revealed in maps produced by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, forms in response to interactions between interstellar space and the heliosphere, the protective bubble in which the Earth and other planets reside. Sensitive neutral atom detectors aboard IBEX produce global maps of this region every six months.
Analyses of the first map, released last fall, suggest the ribbon is somehow ordered by the direction of the local interstellar magnetic field outside the heliosphere, influencing the structure of the heliosphere more than researchers had previously believed. The knot feature seen in the northern portion of the ribbon in the first map stood apart from the rest of the ribbon as the brightest feature at higher energies.
While the second map, released publicly with the just-published paper, shows the large-scale structure of the ribbon to be generally stable within the six-month period, changes are also apparent. The polar regions of the ribbon display lower emissions and the knot diminishes by as much as a third and appears to “untie” as it spreads out to both lower and higher latitudes.
“What we’re seeing is the knot pull apart as it spreads across a region of the ribbon,” says Dr. David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator and an assistant vice president at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “To this day the science team can’t agree on exactly what causes the knot or the ribbon, but by comparing different sky maps we find the surprising result that the region is changing over relatively short time periods. Now we have to figure out why.”
As the IBEX spacecraft gathers a wealth of new information about the dynamic interactions at the edge of the solar system — the region of space that shields our solar system from the majority of galactic cosmic ray radiation — the IBEX team continues to study numerous theories about the source of the ribbon and its unusual features.
The paper, “The evolving heliosphere: Large-scale stability and time variations observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer,” by D.J. McComas, M. Bzowski, P. Frisch, G.B. Crew, M.A. Dayeh, R. DeMajistre, H.O. Funsten, S.A. Fuselier, M. Gruntman, P. Janzen, M.A. Kubiak, G. Livadiotis, E. Mobius, D.B. Reisenfeld, and N.A. Schwadron, was published online Sept. 29 in the American Geophysical Union’s Journal of Geophysical Research.
IBEX is the latest in NASA’s series of low-cost, rapidly developed Small Explorers space missions. Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio leads and developed the mission with a team of national and international partners. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the Explorers Program for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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h/t to Dr. Leif Svalgaard, who offers us a look at the paper here
Come on folks, its plain as day. The ribbon is the solar system’s equivalent of DNA or mDNA, and its unraveling now in preparation for meiosis or mitosis. Clearly its our CO2 production that’s thrown things off and caused the upcoming spawning millions of years earlier than should REALLY have occurred – and we only have 4 years to change our ways and avoid utter destruction from this! Bad SUV’s, bad people, BAD, BAD!!! -VBG-
Robert of Ottawa wrote: “Mr. Evans, yes, but the plasmoid is only a fleeting thing; it is not a stable structure.”
I suggest when there is a stable structure — the heliosphere — a plasmoid can be a stable object embedded within the boundary (because the boundary is stable). Plasmoids have been observed & measured in the Earth’s magnetotail and they persist in that location because the physical dynamics are stable with fairly consistent introduction of electromagnetic energy (although, the plasmoids in the Earth’s magnetotail do explode periodically, initiating the electric current that flows into the Earth’s upper atmosphere, causing the aurora).
I will add, but is sure to be objected to, that plasmoids may possibly be a form of Electric Double Layer. One thing we do know, double layers can take many forms (while maintaining the basic physical relationships), and plasma, as Langmuir noted, is self-organizing, with the charged particles assuming structures which insulate the opposite charges from each other (electrons & ions), so that opposed to popular conception, the charged particles don’t simply “short circuit”and cancel out, but rather assume structures which prevent a simple “short”.
Plasmoids and double layers behave similarly: If there is a steady & constant flow of charged particles (energy) into the respective objects, they will persist.
But if the flow of charged particles is cut-off the structures will not persist, and on the other extreme, if the charge particles (energy) exceeds a certain enery level, the objects can “explode” and in the case of a plasmoid can emit electrons out of one axis and ions out the other axis, again, much like a double layer accelerating electrons out one exhaust “jet” and ions accelerated out the opposite direction in an exhaust “jet”.
James F. Evans
I expect the stellar-gallactic boundary to be about as stable as the geo-solar boundary; i.e. given to great fluctuations on different time scales.
The movement of plasmas on their own will not generate magnetic fields as Leif says. When talking about plasma movement you need to think about cathodes and anodes. On the universal scale there are many cathodes and anodes ranging from galactic size to planetary size. For example our Milky Way could be an anode while Andromeda is a cathode while our sun could be a cathode and Alpha Centauri an anode. With this in mind there are large plasma flows with intersecting smaller plasma flows, plus it has been shown that moving plasma “knots”, all these complex interactions will create magnetic fields or magnetic activity. Double layer boundaries are one of the results of the movements of plasma.
Richard Holle says:
October 1, 2010 at 6:00 am
H.R. says:
October 1, 2010 at 5:34 am
So, how long have humans been observing this ribbon?
__________Reply; if you do a little research, by reading the original article;
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/10/01/knot-in-the-ribbon-at-the-edge-of-the-solar-system-unties/#comment-496385
as mentioned by
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vukcevic says:
October 1, 2010 at 3:43 am
There was a prolong discussion on the subject in the original
post<no longer the link but was a hyperlink to ^
Or if you just clip the term;
"NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft"
Thanks for the prod. While reading the post at 4:30 am local time, I missed the link to the paper that Leif provided. It clarified quite a few points being made in the comments. I was stumped as to how the post gave that much info (it doesn’t, of course).
So then I stumbled about on the IBEX site and found the answer to my question, which is; twice. The ribbon has apparently been observed twice. And I found that they shouldn’t have been surprised because (from the IBEX site re the mission):
“Although the scientists knew the real data would not look exactly as their models predicted, this ribbon feature was a huge surprise to the scientists and was not predicted by any existing models. The ribbon appears to be produced by the alignment of magnetic fields outside our heliosphere. These observations suggest that the interstellar environment has far more influence on structuring the heliosphere than anyone previously believed.”
It seems to me that when you don’t know “what’s in the box,” you shouldn’t be surprised by what you find. I thought their find was really nifty, myself.
Right when I saw that “knot” image the similarity to the plasmoid
of focus fusion came to mind. See
http://focusfusion.org/index.php/gallery/category/C3/
for a few examples.
Sorry Lief but an electric current always produces a magnetic field.
Suggest you read this peer reviewed and published paper.
http://members.cox.net/dascott3/IEEE-TransPlasmaSci-Scott-Aug2007.pdf
Like your reference to the quantum level, as the universe is scalable form that level up to the total cosmos, thats how nature works.
Off for my breakfast now
In the rest frame of a plasma there is no electric field and hence no electric current. If the plasma moves [e.g. the solar wind] into a stationary magnetic field [e.g. the Earth’s] an electric field and currents result. So, currents are the result of moving the conductor [the plasma] with respect to the magnetic field. The magnetic field thus serves as a means to convert kinetic energy into electric energy, as in any old bicycle dynamo. The fundamental error committed by the Electric Universe cult is not to realize this simple principle.
Leif has not read the peer reviewed paper by electrical experts.
Bit mind boggling that the Earths magnetic field is stationary?
Grey Lensman says:
October 1, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Sorry Lief but an electric current always produces a magnetic field.
Yes But these are out of phase to each other (180) so you don’t see voltage if there is magnetization , or if there is voltage there is no magnetization.
better to say voltage or current.
wave propagation from a transmitter works because there is a voltage as the magnetic wave(field) collapses the voltage builds and then reverts, these are out of phase.
LEIF??? currents are the result of moving the conductor [the plasma] ?????
You can show that there are NO electrons in plasma???????
Plasma is a wire?????
please show your work.
Thanks Tim
Tim L says:
October 1, 2010 at 11:31 pm
LEIF??? currents are the result of moving the conductor [the plasma] ?????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_induction
You can show that there are NO electrons in plasma???????
There are the same number of electrons [with negative charge] per cubic meter as there are ions [with positive charge], so no NET charge.
Leif said
‘There are the same number of electrons [with negative charge] per cubic meter as there are ions [with positive charge], so no NET charge.”
Have you counted them? As you know the universe is not symmetrical thus by your own admission currents must flow.
QED
h/t to Dr. Leif Svalgaard, who offers us a look at the paper here
~
Thanks from me too, Leif. Thank – You!
pg.12
“..However,
some statistically significant differences indicate that the outer heliosphere is noticeably evolving over this short (6 month) timeframe. In particular, (3) the overall ENA emissions observed by IBEX above ∼2 keV appear to be slightly lower in the second set of sky maps compared to the first, both within the ribbon and outside of it; (4) both the north and south poles have significantly lower (∼10–15%) ENA emissions in the second set of sky maps compared to the first across the energy range from 0.5 to 6 keV; (5) the “knot” in the northern portion of the ribbon in the first maps is less intense and appears to have spread and/or somewhat dissipated by the time the second set of maps was acquired;
and (6) the detailed fluxes in the southern (horizontal) portion of the ribbon have evolved and there may be a slight (one pixel, ∼6°) equatorward motion of its center..”
~
Leif, what do you think lower ENA levels this go round, are due to?
Wondering if during the last solar max many of these knots existed and now during solar min we have just witnessed the “unraveling” of the last helisopheric knot? (sometimes I do scare myself)
Geesh the whole heliosphere all tied up in knots. lol
Seriously, I was expecting some signs of motion or drift. It’s there but not yet definitive.
vukcevic says:
October 1, 2010 at 7:43 am
Let’s put in GCR’s terms: when charged particles encounter a magnetic bubble, they will form a ribbon around the bubble following the bubble’s magnetic equator.
Heliosphere’s magnetic equator is defined by composite of the solar wind remanents at the bow-shock boundary. As Sun’s activity oscillates, so the ribbon will reflect convolutions of the heliospheric field.
There is an analogous double ribbon in the ionosphere surrounding the Earth
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/154188main_plasma_bands_lgweb.jpg
It closely follows the geo-magnetic equator as you can see, on a totally unrelated subject
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/LFC20.htm
images 3,4 & 5.
Vuks, thanks for the links, your graphs and presentation. Food for thought.
James and Leif, don’t go off on minute details too much. Hey, much bigger picture, right?
Also wondering if the “knot” was a leftover piece of a magic magnetic carpet, that took a ride out to the edge..Leif, where you riding that out to edge to try and see out?
hmm leftover magnetic carpet remnants?
Understanding of solar wind structure might be wrong
Los Alamos scientist suggests new approach to measuring flow from the sun
LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, September 9, 2010—A scientist examining the solar wind suggests that our understanding of its structure may need significant reassessment. The plasma particles flowing from the Sun and blasting past the Earth might be configured more as a network of tubes than a river-like stream, according to Joseph Borovsky of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Space
In a paper in this week’s Physical Review Letters, “Contribution of Strong Discontinuities to the Power Spectrum of the Solar Wind,” (Physical Review Letters 105, 111102 [2010]), Borovsky challenges the concept that the solar wind is of fairly uniform structure, and therefore, our entire interpretation of spacecraft data may not be correct.
“For decades we have been interpreting the spectrum of fluctuations in the solar wind as a measurement of turbulence in the wind. However, it turns out that impurities (discontinuities) in plasma dominate the signal. Hence, the spectrum is not a clean measurement of turbulence, and it may not even be a measurement of turbulence,” Borovsky said. In simpler terms, perhaps, we couldn’t see the forest for the trees.
“Because we might be misunderstanding the solar wind, we might be misunderstanding its impact on the Earth’s environment. Understanding solar wind allows us to understand the initiation and evolution of geomagnetic storms,” said Herbert Funsten, chief scientist for the International, Space & Response Division at Los Alamos.
“..Borovosky argues that the discontinuities are part of a structure to the solar wind that looks like spaghetti, with the discontinuities being the boundaries between adjacent noodles (magnetic tubes). In this concept, the wind plasma is structured rather than being homogeneous. He suggests that the spaghetti structure of the solar-wind plasma reflects the “magnetic carpet” on the surface of the Sun, with the spaghetti in the wind being loose strands of the magnetic carpet.
“We have also argued that the spectrum measured in the wind is a ‘remnant’ of the carpet on the Sun rather than a signature of turbulence in the wind plasma,” he says..”
http://www.lanl.gov/news/releases/unders….ewsrelease.html
One last thing..
The TWINS satellites (not named Castor and Pollux) were supposed to be imaging earth’s magnetosphere much the same way that IBEX is imaging the Heliopheric boundary. Working together..
Any word on this?
Meet the TWINS:
The TWINS Mission
“Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) is a NASA Explorer Mission-of-Opportunity to stereoscopically image the Earth’s magnetosphere for the first time. TWINS extends our understanding of magnetospheric structure and processes by providing simultaneous Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) imaging from two widely separated locations. TWINS observes ENAs from 1-100 keV with high angular (~4°x4°) and time (~1-minute) resolution. The TWINS Lyman-alpha monitor measures the geocoronal hydrogen density to aid in ENA analysis while environmental sensors provide contemporaneous measurements of the local charged particle environments. By imaging ENAs with identical instruments from two widely spaced, high-altitude, high-inclination spacecraft, TWINS enables three-dimensional visualization of the large-scale structures and dynamics within the magnetosphere for the first time. .”
http://twins.swri.edu/mission.jsp#mission
http://plasmascience.net/elec_currents.html
“Regardless of scale, the motion of charged particles produces a self-magnetic field that can act on other collections of particles or plasmas, internally or externally. Plasmas in relative motion are coupled via currents that they drive through each other. Currents are therefore expected in a universe of inhomogeneous astrophysical plasmas of all sizes.”
The above would be expected. The electrons and ions in a plasma are constantly in motion. That motion will create localized electrical currents which in turn creates small magnetic fields. These magnetic fields then move and direct the plasma which sets up larger electric currents and so on and so forth. It would be impossible for a plasma cloud to be ‘electrically neutral’.
A spiral feature at the Heliopause?…. That’s not surprising at all….. It is merely dark matter interacting with dark energy and causing a funky yellow spiral….. Quite simple really when one applies the most advanced Cosmological theories….. 😉
….. sigh 🙁
It’s a wingtip vortex. ET phone home.
Or maybe it’s the first confirmed sighting of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The knot would be His Noodly Appendage. The Pastafarians must be very excited.
Steve B says:
October 2, 2010 at 6:05 am
“It would be impossible for a plasma cloud to be ‘electrically neutral’.”
You were doing great until you made the above statement. The solar wind is electrically neutral, yet it carries an electric current, because its positive and negative charges are moving relative to each other.
pochas says:
October 2, 2010 at 12:01 pm
The solar wind is electrically neutral, yet it carries an electric current, because its positive and negative charges are moving relative to each other.
No they generally don’t, because the attract each other so strongly. What would separate them?
I want to thank all the physicists and other scientists who pick up on a fascinating bit of science like this report and in debating enlighten some of the rest of us [English majors, said in a low whisper…!].
I don’t understand why an enjoyable discussion has to be interrupted by jibes about Al Gore and cracks about CO2 from folks who don’t seem to appreciate something like this. Come on, guys! Let it go! Every once in a while it is just delightful to contemplate some of the wonders in the universe for what they are, without obsessing constantly about AGW… 🙂
Lief
I love scientists but their addiction to complexity and desire to use as many big words as possible does frustrate me.
So i try to keep it simple and cut to the chase.
Warmist fear mongering, pretending to be science, shows us that debate and dissent is vital to the growth of science and human knowledge.
You have taken some hits here, I have been lost for words
Thats how it should be
Just saw Eds comment, I think my post applies to him as well
Grey it is Leif not Lief.
I made that mistake a while back [a bit dyslexic here].
But it is definitely e before i.
🙂
-Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA