Posted on 05/26/2010 9:56:30 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Is the Sun going to enter a million-degree galactic cloud of interstellar gas soon?
Scientists from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute, and Boston University suggest that the ribbon of enhanced emissions of energetic neutral atoms, discovered last year by the NASA Small Explorer satellite IBEX, could be explained by a geometric effect coming up because of the approach of the Sun to the boundary between the Local Cloud of interstellar gas and another cloud of a very hot gas called the Local Bubble. If this hypothesis is correct, IBEX is catching matter from a hot neighboring interstellar cloud, which the Sun might enter in a hundred years.
First full-sky maps of the emissions of energetic neutral atoms (ENA), obtained last year by IBEX, showed a surprising arc-like feature called the Ribbon. This astonishing discovery was later announced by NASA as one of the most important findings in space exploration made in 2009. Shortly after the discovery six hypotheses were proposed to explain the Ribbon, all of them predicting its relation to processes going on within the heliosphere or in its neighborhood. In a paper recently published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a Polish-US team of scientists led by Prof. Stan Grzedzielski from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, offers a different explanation. "We observe the Ribbon," says Grzedzielski "because the Sun is approaching a boundary between our Local Cloud of interstellar gas and another cloud of a very hot and turbulent gas."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
It was my fault. It would not affect radiant waves if you are talking about light. Cosmic radiation is considered a radiant wave.
We need to lay this one at Cheney’s feet.
Bad Cheney! You made us enter a hot cloud of interstellar gas!
Joy Behar: “Bringing Greater Levels of Ignorance to the Universe”
Nah. The ether as I was taught in school had a special ability on earth to always present itself out of phase between transmission and reception. That made it capturable (if that’s a word). I still don’t believe that has been made known or understood.
Any chance this thing is this missing stripe off of Jupiter. It ought to be checked out before Owl Gore get’s involved. Sheesh, let’s not get him all twisted up again,
2012 was a diversion. It’s happening this weekend.
http://www.spaceweather.com/
I am glad that you brought this up.
:)
I’ve been out of the books for 20 years. It always fascinated me. You could bounce a circle or just directly point it and it was always at the correct polarity to be received, regardless of distance. This is one that confounds all.
As far as whats happening around the Sun, our ability to watch the anomalies and speculate or draw a hypothesis on the meaning are limitless. :^)
I agree with you.
And Marshmallows!
Well, if it means the end of the world, can it wait until my Hawks win the Stanley Cup? Then I will be happy.
Your point is well taken, but incorrectly expressed. 1/2kT is the average energy per degree of freedom. In an ideal gas of point-like particles, the energy is 3/2nkT, since 3-dimensional space affords 3 degrees of freedom for each of the n particles in the gas, independent of their mass. This means that a gas of massive particles in thermal equilibrium with a gas of less massive particles wil have a lower average velocity.
Mark Twain quipped, "That's the wonderful thing about science. One gets such a wholesale return in conjecture on such a trifling investment of fact."
We might put a positive spin on this observation by noting the broad implications of simple fundamental definitions.
“Not to worry, not to worry. Except for the constant whooshing sound for the next 10,000 years, you won’t notice a thing ;^) “
Also, in that ribbon, “It’s a Small World” will play in a continuous loop for 936 years.
The star "Betelgeuse" is about to Supernova anyway. If its pointed just right, we might not ever have anything else to worry about. Actually, it has likely already went Super Nova, and we just haven't seen it yet, given the 600 or so light year distance. It'll be cool having another 'Sun' in our skies. We'll be just like Tatooine!
Damn, I was hoping for something from ZZ Top or AC/DC!
I could bare that for 936 years ;^)
Time we start ENA exchange cap and trade legislation.
Its the only thing that will save us.
Sheesh, wouldn’t you know it? Right after I slap my “Stop Tectonic Shift” bumper sticker on the old chariot, I now have to scrape it off and replace it with my new “Stop the Solar System / Million Degree Local Cloud Collision” sticker. The work of us “activists” is never finished.
...and here comes the “Interstellar Gas Tax”....
Nope. It’s all Disney all the time. It’s a hard universe out there.
Star Trek Generations: the movie.
Shatner, Stewart and Malcolm McDowell.
Beware the Grand Negus, er, Nexus.
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