New theory unravels magnetic instability

spaceref.com ^ | 10 Dec 02 | Los Alamos

[RightWhale]

An application of meteorology to a different fluid: Kelvin eyes, often highly visible, form at the shear boundary. The Giant Red Spot of Jupiter has this appearance, as do hurricanes and galaxies, although they aren't paired like Kelvin eyes often are. It is known that the heat equation can be used to model the dissipation of the magnetic field that surrounds sunspots

[robertpaulsen]

Is this why my refrigerator magnets won't work?

[RightWhale]

What do you mean they don't work? Don't they stick to refrigerators anymore?

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[GovernmentShrinker]

Okay, I asked this question yesterday on the Astronomy Picture of the Day thread, hoping that knowledgeable people there would have an answer. But they didn't respond, so now I'll try you (and any other space-physics folks who might happen along to this thread):

Does anyone here, with professional experience in the field, have any thoughts as to whether it may eventually be feasible to shove Mars into Earth's orbit, thus causing it to acquire a climate similar to Earth's. I don't see much future for humans living in cramped space stations or similar facilities built on the surface of other inhospitable planets, so this seems like the logical direction of human space colonization efforts. I know we're working on ways to shove big asteroids into a path that suits us (i.e. that won't hit us), and most astrophysicists seem to think we'll find a way to do it. So why not planets next? And what would having Mars in Earth's orbit (presumably at the opposite end of the ellipse) have on Earth's gravitational field?

Please ping anyone you know who might be able to give an educated answer to these questions.

[RightWhale]

That's the idea. We will probably move Venus to a Lagrange point in earth's orbit, and move Mercury to orbit Venus, giving it a moon like earth has. Mars could be moved to the other Lagrange point in earth's orbit, but it wouldn't be much of a planet and what would you do for a moon of Mars?

[mrsmith]

MHD is the most difficult and promising area of study.
God bless all who undertake it. They are the scientific pioneers.

Some abstracts from last year's American Physical Society mini-conference on Reconnection: APS

[Dog Gone]

Is your refrigerator logged in?

[Doctor Stochastic]

No.

[robertpaulsen]

I think there's a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the compressor. Or in the vegetable bin.

Workin' on it.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Huh?

[GovernmentShrinker]

Why not?

[Sentis]

The Mars problem has long been plauging me and maybe this is the place to address it.

Mars can be Terraformed right NOW


We have the technology to make the planet habitable. I have discussed this with a scientist at NASA a few years ago and he agrees the plan I suggest is possible but will never ever happen becuase it isn't PC. What I suggest is we Nuke the Martian Poles. The Martian poles are made up of 90% Carbon Dioxide with 10%water. What will happen when we nuke the poles is that the Carbon dioxide will be burned producing Carbon ash, Oxygen, and water vapor. The carbon ash will fall to earth (Or should I say Mars) and create a black blanket increasing the albedo of the polar surface keeeping the poles warm releashing the remainder of the CO2. The releashed Oxygen, water vapor, and CO2 will create a Green house affect (Viola, we can create real global warming somewhere if we try really hard). Because there is three times the amount of CO2 in the martian poles than there are gases in Earth's atmosphere the released gases will create a warm world. It will then be ready for the addition of simple plants and animals into its ecosystem. Humans will then also be able to walk the surface with little more than a oxygem system similar to a scuba device.

A moon would also be nice for the red planet becuase a moon helps create a warmer planet due to increased techtonic stresses.

[Doctor Stochastic]

It costs too much in the way of energy. You have to shed Mars's orbital energy and its angular momentum. You asked about feasibility, not miracles.

[Doctor Stochastic]

If we're going the SciFi route, why not just land some genetically engineered bacteria on Mars and let the bacteria do their thing.

[Sentis]

Becuase Nuclear weapons are real and genetically engineered viruses that do what you suggest are scifi at this moment. It's science fiction to believe we can move the planet, Its not science fiction to nuke the bejesus out of the place.

[LibWhacker]

If you look at the formula for orbital period, any object in the same orbit as the earth, but not having the same mass, cannot have the same period. In other words, we'd collide.

[MHGinTN]

The bacteria route isn't sci fi, Doc. They did/do a great job here.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I want to have breathable air so I don't have to walk around with a scuba thingy. Why can't I have it?

[GovernmentShrinker]

Okay. Could we put it in something near enough to Earth's orbit that the climate would be habitable, but not quite IN Earth's orbit? And of course, once we've learned how to move the thing, presumably we could make periodic adjustments if necessary, to avoid collisions.