Showing posts with label Earth. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Sun Will "Flip Upside Down" In Few Weeks

The Sun is set to "flip upside down" within weeks as its magnetic field reverses polarity in an event that will send ripple effects throughout the solar system.

Although it may sound like a catastrophic occurrence, there's no need to run for cover. The sun switches its polarity, flipping its magnetic north and south, once every eleven years through an internal mechanism about which little is understood.

The swap could however cause intergalactic weather fronts such as geomagnetic storms, which can interfere with satellites and cause radio blackouts.

Nasa said in August that the change would happen in three to four months time, but it is impossible to give a more specific date. Scientist won't know for around another three weeks whether the flip is complete.

The impact of the transfer will be widespread as the sun's magnetic field exerts influence well beyond Pluto, past Nasa's Voyager probes positioned near the edge of interstellar space.

The event will be watched closely by researchers at Stanford University's Wilcox Solar Observatory, which monitors the sun's magnetic field on a daily basis.

Todd Hoeksema, director of the Wilcox Solar Observatory, said the polarity change is built up throughout the eleven year cycle through areas of intense magnetic activity known as sunspots which gradually move towards the poles, eroding the existing opposite polarity.

Eventually, the magnetic field reduces to zero, before rebounding with the opposite polarity. "It's kind of like a tide coming in or going out," Hoeksema said. "Each little wave brings a little more water in, and eventually you get to the full reversal."

One of the most noticeable effect on Earth will be a boost in the occurrence, range and visibility of auroras - the Northern Lights. "It's not a catastrophic event, it's a large scale event that has some real implications, but its not something we need to worry about," added Hoeksema.

Source: Times Of India
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- Unknown Updated at: Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Moon Atleast 100 Million Years Younger!

How old is the moon? Not as old as we once thought.

The moon is likely to be 4.4 billion to 4.45 billion years old, or about 100 million years younger than previously thought, according to new research by geochemist Richard Carlson of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

It may be the closest body to us in space, but scientists are still not sure exactly how, or when, it formed.

The current working theory suggests that the moon formed when a large proto-planet plowed into the early Earth, creating a major explosion that sent huge amounts of rocky debris into space.

While most of that material returned to Earth, the theory suggests some of it stayed in space, forming a disk around the Earth that eventually grew together to form the moon.

While other scientists continue to improve their models of what this giant impact may have looked like, Carlson is trying to determine when it happened.

Like other scientists before him, he has been using radioactive dating to determine the age of lunar rocks collected during the Apollo missions.

Previous work in this area had a large margin of error, but Carlson says improved technology has allowed him to narrow that margin significantly.

"Back in the 1970s, you couldn't distinguish between 4.45 and 4.55 billion years," he told the Los Angeles Times. "Today, we can, and everything we are seeing suggests the 4.4 billion number."

One of the most interesting implications of Carlson's research is to imagine what the Earth might have been like before it had a moon.

"We know the age of the solar system very well -- 4.568 billion years," Carlson said. "So the Earth may have had two phases of its life -- one before the giant impact, and another one greatly modified by the impact."

Carlson presented his research this week at the "Origins of the Moon" meeting of the Royal Society.

Shared From Los Angles Times

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- Unknown Updated at: Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Life Discovered In Stratosphere, Are Alien Life Forms Coming In To Earth's Atmosphere?

The team, led by the University of Sheffield, found small organisms that could have come from space after sending a specially designed balloon to 27 km into the stratosphere during the recent Perseid meteor shower.

"Most people will assume that these biological particles must have just drifted up to the stratosphere from Earth, but it is generally accepted that a particle of the size found cannot be lifted from Earth to heights of, for example, 27 km," said Professor Milton Wainwright from the University's Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.

"The only known exception is by a violent volcanic eruption, none of which occurred within three years of the sampling trip.

"In the absence of a mechanism by which large particles like these can be transported to the stratosphere we can only conclude that the biological entities originated from space.

"Our conclusion then is that life is continually arriving to Earth from space, life is not restricted to this planet and it almost certainly did not originate here," he said.

"If life does continue to arrive from space then we have to completely change our view of biology and evolution. New textbooks will have to be written!" Wainwright said.

The balloon, designed by Chris Rose and Alex Baker from the University of Sheffield's Leonardo Centre for Tribology, was launched near Chester and carried microscope studs which were only exposed to the atmosphere when the balloon reached heights of between 22 and 27 km.

The balloon landed safely and intact near Wakefield. The scientists then discovered that they had captured a diatom fragment and some unusual biological entities from the stratosphere, all of which are too large to have come from Earth.

Wainwright said stringent precautions had been taken against the possibility of contamination during sampling and processing, and said the group was confident that the biological organisms could only have come from the stratosphere.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Cosmology.

Wainwright's team is hoping to extend and confirm their results by carrying out the test again in October to coincide with the upcoming Haley's Comet-associated meteorite shower when there will be large amounts of cosmic dust.

Shared From Sahara Samay