Posted on 04/25/2009 9:07:00 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
DIFFERENT CULTURES have attributed their spectacular light show to fire-breathing dragons, dancing gods and ghostly clans at war.
New research, however, has found that the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are powered by giant electrical tornadoes spinning at more than a million miles an hour and stretching thousands of miles into space.
Scientists used a set of five satellites designed to measure the Earth’s magnetic field to generate the first images of the whirling vortices.
They show how vast quantities of charged particles emitted by the sun first pile up in huge clouds about 40,000 miles above the night side of Earth. Then, as the energy they hold becomes too great, the particles explode downwards towards Earth, spinning as they go.
“When these space tornadoes reach the upper atmosphere their enormous energy heats the air so strongly it starts glowing. That is what generates the aurorae,” said Professor Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, director of the Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics in Braunschweig, Germany.
The northern lights and their southern equivalent, the aurora australis, create spectacular moving displays of different shades and colours of light.
Usually these can only be seen in extreme northern or southern latitudes, but sometimes, when the sun is particularly active, they become much larger. Occasionally they can be seen from Scotland.
Humans have attempted many explanations for the aurorae. Russian folklore linked them with mythical fire dragons, said to assume human form to seduce women in the absence of their husbands. Early Chinese dragon myths are said to have originated from them, while ancient Britons saw the lights as clans fighting past battles.
More recently, they inspired Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights novel, where the aurorae were depicted as potential gateways between different worlds.
Scientists, however, have long known that the aurorae are generated
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
~Everything~ is electric *ping*.
Awesome God! How great Thou art!
To get Jupitor auroras, wouldn't a magnetic field be required? And wouldn't that require an iron core? I thought Jupitor was all gas.
Nah!
Everything is Klingon.
(Post 19)
“Roar roar for Nora
For Nora in the night
has seen Aurora Borealis
burning bright”
thanks LucyT.
UNEXPECTED SOLAR ACTIVITY: The sun produced an unexpected burst of activity on April 23rd when an enormous prominence rose over the northeastern limb and erupted. A coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed away from the blast site, but the billion-ton cloud is not heading toward Earth. Visit http://spaceweather.com for movies of the event.
Superfast secret of northern lights revealed
The Times | 4/26/2009 | Jonathan Leake
Posted on 04/25/2009 9:07:00 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
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Is that an actual picture of Dr VanderGraf?
Happens other places too...
Cheers!
Awesome!
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