Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth Date: Saturday, September 12, 2009 @ 18:32:39 UTC Topic:
Oct.
30, 2008: During the time it takes you to read this
article, something will happen high overhead that until recently
many scientists didn't believe in. A magnetic portal will
open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons
of high-energy particles may flow through the opening before
it closes again, around the time you reach the end of the
page.
"It's
called a flux transfer event or 'FTE,'" says space physicist
David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Ten
years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the
evidence is incontrovertible."
Indeed,
today Sibeck is telling an international assembly of space
physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama,
that FTEs are not just common, but possibly twice as common
as anyone had ever imagined.
Oct.
30, 2008: During the time it takes you to read this
article, something will happen high overhead that until recently
many scientists didn't believe in. A magnetic portal will
open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons
of high-energy particles may flow through the opening before
it closes again, around the time you reach the end of the
page.