That was back when I had more hair.
Posted on 02/23/2013 1:31:31 PM PST by SunkenCiv
New analysis shows that the Chandler Wobble in Earth’s axis changed phase by 180 degrees in 2005. The question is why.
If you travel to the Arctic and attempt to find the axis of Earth’s rotation, you’ll notice something odd. The position of this axis on Earth’s surface moves with a period of about seven years. This is the combined result of two effects. The one we’re interested today is called the Chandler Wobble, which has a period of 433 days and was discovered by American astronomer Seth Carlo Chandler in 1891.
The Chandler Wobble is reasonably well understood. Any spinning sphere that it is not entirely spherical should wobble in this way. However, on Earth, the wobble varies in amplitude from decade to decade, a motion that is thought to be the result of the changes in pressure at the bottom of the oceans caused by fluctuations in salinity, temperature, and ocean circulation.
But there is also something mysterious about the Chandler Wobble. In 1920, it underwent a sudden phase change of 180 degrees. Nobody knows why.
Now a new analysis of data on Earth’s rotation going back 160 years indicates that this event was not unique. Zinovy Malkin and Natalia Miller at the Russian Academy of Sciences Central Astronomical Observatory in Pulkovo say the phase has changed by small amounts on many occasions during this time. But the big news is that the wobble underwent 180-degree changes in phase on two other occasions: once in 1850 and the other in 2005.
So why should the Chandler Wobble undergo these changes in phase? An interesting puzzle for anybody with a few brain cycles to spare.
(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...
It spins left for me unless I change it. I am left handed. which means I am (for the moment) in my right mind. Lefties of the world UNITE! Left is right!
And did you know? Everyone is born right-handed.
Only the greatest can overcome it.
Interestingly, if I do something like typing, and “think” about what I am typing, while sorta half looking at the girl she swings her leg back and forth. So now I’m a wondering if I can get her to STOP.
That was back when I had more hair.
Clockwise
no...
yeah, i've seen her stutter back and forth also
You are all right after all.
•Earth Is Undergoing True Polar Wander, Scientists Say
•Scafetta’s new paper attempts to link climate cycles to planetary motion ( March 2012)
•Wind can keep mountains from growing
•Magnetic Polar Shifts Causing Massive Global Superstorms
•Magnetic polar shifts causing massive global superstorms
•Cosmic Impact Site That Created Earth’s Axial Tilt and Fault Lines
•Sun, moon trigger San Andreas tremors: study
•North By Northwest
•Geophysicist Discovers Why Earth ‘Wobbles’ [ 2004 ]
•In Climate Controversy, Industry Cedes Ground
•The ‘wobble’ that wipes out life on Earth every 2.5m years
•Global Warming Needs New Look at Mechanisms Involved
•Rhythmic Submarine Volcanos And El Niños
•Chandler’s Wobble Causes Earthquakes, Volcanism, El Nino, and Global Warming
For true links, go to SunkenCiv
Cthulhu stirring uneasily in his sleep in R'lyeh.
What a great Art Bell show this would’ve been. Fascinating subject.
Have you ever done a polar alignment to better than 0.7 arcseconds? That’s about the diffraction limit of a 10” telescope.
LOL...
Means you need to dump the goto and get a dob without setting circles!
I still use a Newt with a equatorial mount. And sometimes the clockdrive works!
Good book on the topic:
Good book on the topic:
Maybe the first odd thing you would notice is that it's not so easy to know when you are at the exact north or south pole, even if the axis is not moving.
Thanks LiM!
Not enough.
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