A Breach in the Earth Magnetic Field found
Remember my post awhile ago about the connection between Earth and the Sun that occurs every eight minutes, well looks like more can happen during that connection than scientists first thought. NASA today released an interesting article about a recent discovery by the THEMIS project. It seems that during the connection, while THEMIS was actually watching, the Earth’s magnetic field was breached and solar energy flowed though, charging our magnetosphere. This loads up the Earth’s magnetosphere with charged particles and that can mean more powerful geomagnetic storms — cell phone disruption, prettier Auroras, and other related events.
That they found this as the sun is going into Solar Cycle 24, with more frequent and stronger solar events, may add to the fun here on Earth. [Hyperion: Each Cycle is approximately 11 years long, measuring from Solar Minimum to Solar Minimum, with Solar Maximum hitting at the midway point, or 2012-2013 in this case.]
The really interesting bit is that scientists were convince this just couldn’t happen. But, it did. They have the data and it can’t be denied. It happened. So, now they have to deal with this new information and change their existing theories and check out the ones that they develop to take the place of the old one that was just proven wrong. You just got to love science — it’s so, so practical, the way that new data means throwing out the old way of thinking and start over and everyone just shrugs their shoulders and moves on. Wish that happened more often in the daily life.