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Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.

 
Xenus 
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Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Terrestrial atmospheric effects induced by counterstreaming dense interstellar cloud material

A. Yeghikyan1 - H. Fahr2


1 - Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, 378433, Byurakan, Armenia
2 - Institute of Astrophysics and Extraterrestrial Research (IAER), University of Bonn, Auf dem Huegel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany

Received 15 April 2004 / Accepted 26 May 2004

Abstract

The Solar System during its life has travelled more than 10 times through dense interstellar clouds with particle concentrations of 102-103 and more, compressing the heliosphere to heliopause dimensions smaller than 1 AU and thus bringing the Earth in immediate contact with the interstellar matter. For cloud concentrations greater than of 102 , the flowing interstellar material even at the Earth`s orbit remains completely shielded from solar wind protons and would only be subject to solar photoionization processes. We have developed a 2D-two-fluid gas-dynamical numerical code to describe the hydrodynamical behavior of the incoming interstellar gas near the Earth, taking into account both the photoionization and the gravity of the Sun. As we show, the resulting strongly increased neutral hydrogen fluxes ranging from 109 to 1011 cause substantial changes in the terrestrial atmosphere. During the phase of the immersion into the cloud the resulting flux of neutral hydrogen incident on the terrestrial atmosphere in the steady state would be balanced by the upward escape flux of H-atoms and the downward flux of water molecules, which is the product of the atmospheric hydrogen-oxygen chemistry via even-odd reaction schemes. In that case hydrogen acts as a chemical agent to remove oxygen atoms and to cause ozone concentration reductions above 50 km by a factor of 1.5 at the stratopause to about a factor of 1000 and more at the mesopause. Thus, depending on the specific encounter parameters the high mixing ratio of hydrogen in the Earth's atmosphere may substantially decrease the ozone concentration in the mesosphere and may trigger an ice age of relatively long duration.

1 Introduction

From time to time, the Solar System on its galactic itinerary encounters various galactic objects, e.g. spiral arms (Leitch & Vasisht 1998; Shaviv 2003), star clusters and associations (Innanen 1996), galactic diffuse clouds (H I) and giant molecular clouds (GMC) (Talbot & Newman 1977), etc. Although all encounter probabilities are finite, only a few of them are high enough to make it worthwhile to consider them. All of these mentioned events correspond to different mean travel times of the solar system between consecutive encounters with the corresponding objects, e.g. depending on their distributions in the galactic plane, their sizes and their peculiar velocities. For example, neutral H I clouds, having a mean number density in the range from 10 to 100 and a radius of about a few pc, are objects fairly frequently encountered by the Sun, perhaps over 100 times since its birth 4.6 Gyr ago. The more dense GMCs, having densities of 103 or more, probably must have been encountered by the Sun about 5-10 times (see e.g., Talbot & Newman 1977). When such events happen (especially in the case of GMCs) the solar wind expansion region must be reduced to small scales, and the flow of solar coronal matter hence must be deflected into the heliotail within distances of less than 1 AU. Thus the Earth under these conditions should inevitably be immersed in the direct flow of the cloud material (see Yeghikyan & Fahr 2003), at least during its upwind orbital passage. Concerning this aspect it is interesting to note that Wimmer-Schweingruber & Bochsler (2000) have recently given clear hints that gas constituents implanted in cristalline surface layers of lunar soil grains can be taken as a record of encounters with dense interstellar clouds.
[link to www.aanda.org]

Heliospheric Response to Different Possible Interstellar
Environments

Hans-Reinhard M¨uller1
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755.
[email protected]

Priscilla C. Frisch
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637.
[email protected]

Vladimir Florinski and Gary P. Zank
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521.
[email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT

At present, the heliosphere is embedded in a warm low density interstellar cloud that belongs
to a cloud system flowing through the local standard of rest with a velocity near ∼18 km s−1. The
velocity structure of the nearest interstellar material (ISM), combined with theoretical models
of the local interstellar cloud (LIC), suggest that the Sun passes through cloudlets on timescales
of ≤ 103–104 yr, so the heliosphere has been, and will be, exposed to different interstellar environments
over time.
By means of a multi-fluid model that treats plasma and neutral hydrogen
self-consistently, the interaction of the solar wind with a variety of partially ionized ISM is investigated,
with the focus on low density cloudlets such as are currently near the Sun. Under
the assumption that the basic solar wind parameters remain/were as they are today, a range of
ISM parameters (from cold neutral to hot ionized, with various densities and velocities) is considered.
In response to different interstellar boundary conditions, the heliospheric size and structure
change, as does the abundance of interstellar and secondary neutrals in the inner heliosphere,
and the cosmic ray level in the vicinity of Earth. Some empirical relations between interstellar
parameters and heliospheric boundary locations, as well as neutral densities, are extracted from
the models.

1. INTRODUCTION

The heliosphere is a low density cavity that
is carved out from the local interstellar medium
(LISM) by the solar wind. The size and particle
content of the heliosphere are determined by the solar wind – LISM interaction, and they
vary in response to the Galactic environment of
the Sun as the Sun and interstellar clouds move
through space. The path of the Sun has taken us
through the Local Bubble void, and we have recently ( <&#8764;
103 &#8722;105 yr ago, depending on
cloud shapes and densities) entered a clumpy flow
of low density interstellar material (Frisch 1994).
This clumpy flow, the “cluster of local interstellar
cloudlets” (CLIC), is flowing away from the
Sco-Cen association and extends 10–30 pc into the
Galactic center hemisphere and <&#8764;
3 pc for many
directions in the anticenter hemisphere.


6. For encounters with a high density interstellar
cloud (&#8764;15 cm&#8722;3, about 50 times the
contemporary value), the particle fluxes arriving
at Earth orbit, including interstellar
neutrals, neutral solar wind, and cosmic rays
will increase markedly. These changes potentially
affect Earth’s atmosphere and its
climate.
The changes in particle fluxes just
due to a higher interstellar velocity are less
pronounced.


7. For the period when the Sun was embedded
in the Local Bubble, particle fluxes were
reduced substantially. Secondary particles
like anomalous cosmic rays and neutral solar
wind were entirely absent, and the galactic
cosmic ray flux arriving at Earth was comparable
to the contemporary flux, or even reduced,
depending on the modulation model.
[link to astro.uchicago.edu]


Neutral hydrogen surveys have been made to search for dense cloudlets within the Local Bubble, but none have ever been detected by this means, at least in non-ionized hydrogen gas to which the 21-centimeter observations are the most sensitive. The existence of a cloud or clouds near the Sun has, however, been established by what are called solar backscatter observations in which the lyman-alpha emission from the Sun is reflected back to the Earth from distant material outside the solar system. There is, apparently, a medium called the Local Fluff in which the solar system is embedded, which has a density of about 0.1 atoms/cc, a temperature of 10,000 K, and a relative velocity with respect to the solar system of about 20 km/sec based on a slight doppler shift in the reflected emission. McClintock and his coworkers in 1978 used data from the Copernicus satellite which involved measuring the Local Fluff towards stars with distances between 1.3 and 14 parsecs, and concluded that the Local Fluff extends about 3.5 parsecs. Frisch and York, in 1983, surveyed 140 stars out to several hundred parsecs from the Sun and detected a pattern of emission that indicated a dense cloud located about 17-35 parsecs from the Sun towards the Galactic Center in Sagittarius. In a 1983 Nature article ( vol 302, p. 806) Francesco Paresce proposed that the Local Fluff is the low density, ionized outer layers of this cloud, and that the SUn has just recently entered the outer regions of this dense cloud.

Astronomers Priscilla Frisch and Daniel Welty at the University of Chicago announced at the June, 1996 meeting of the American Astronomical Society ( see the New York Times, Science Supplement, June 18, issue) recapitulated the earlier proposal that the Sun may have already entered the Local Fluff a few thousand years ago. Observations by Dr. Jeffrey Linsky at the University of Colorado of 18 nearby stars indicated that the Local Fluff cloud surrounding the solar system was not a uniform cloud, but contained cloudlets of very different internal density with one of these located between the Sun and the nearby star Alpha Centauri.

Astronomers John Watson and David Meyer at Northwestern University have also discovered that in the Sun's vicinity, the interstellar medium is filled with many cloudlets with a size comparable to the solar system. Radio astronomers have also observed the phenomenon of interstellar scintillation in the radio signals from distant quasars, and deduced that the interstellar medium is far from smooth, but contains clumps and filaments at many different scales.

The solar system is, apparently, moving along a path that is certain to take us closer to the Sco-Cen expanding superbubble. The 'wall' between the Local Bubble and the Sco-Cen bubble now seems to consist of an increasing density of cloudlets of varying size and density. The Sun, after apparently spending many hundreds of millennia in quieter regions of the Local Bubble, is apparently now moving nearer one wall of this cavity towards us from the direction of Scorpio/Centaurus. Rather than a smooth wall of material, it consists of many individual pieces and cloudlets. When the solar system enters such a cloud, the first thing that will happen will be that the magnetic field of the Sun, which now extends perhaps 100 AU from the Sun and 2-3 times the orbit of Pluto, will be compressed back into the inner solar system depending on the density of the medium that the Sun encounters. When this happens, the Earth may be laid bare to an increased cosmic ray bombardment. To make matters worse, the Earth's magnetic field is itself decreasing as we enter the next field reversal era in a few thousand years. If the Earth's field is 'down' during the same time that the solar system has wandered into the new could, the cosmic ray flux at the Earth's surface could be many times higher than it now is.

The biological effects may not be so severe. We just don't really know. Fossil records show that in previous field reversals, there was hardly a sign of any biological impact caused by species extinctions or mutations. We don't really know when the last time it was that our solar system found itself in a dense interstellar cloud, so we cannot look at the fossil record to see what effects this might have had. Since all of the major extinctions seem to be related to tectonic activity, or to asteroid impacts, there isn't much left over to argue that there will be a dire effect of the next cloud passage upon the biosphere. If you believe our knowledge of the solar vicinity, the next cloud passage could happen within 20 - 50,000 years. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
[link to www.astronomycafe.net]

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."
[link to www.sciencedaily.com]

December 23, 2009: The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.

Astronomers call the cloud we're running into now the Local Interstellar Cloud or "Local Fluff" for short. It's about 30 light years wide and contains a wispy mixture of hydrogen and helium atoms at a temperature of 6000 C. The existential mystery of the Fluff has to do with its surroundings. About 10 million years ago, a cluster of supernovas exploded nearby, creating a giant bubble of million-degree gas. The Fluff is completely surrounded by this high-pressure supernova exhaust and should be crushed or dispersed by it.

"The observed temperature and density of the local cloud do not provide enough pressure to resist the 'crushing action' of the hot gas around it," says Opher.

*snip*

The Fluff is held at bay just beyond the edge of the solar system by the sun's magnetic field, which is inflated by solar wind into a magnetic bubble more than 10 billion km wide. Called the "heliosphere," this bubble acts as a shield that helps protect the inner solar system from galactic cosmic rays and interstellar clouds. The two Voyagers are located in the outermost layer of the heliosphere, or "heliosheath," where the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas.

*snip*

The fact that the Fluff is strongly magnetized means that other clouds in the galactic neighborhood could be, too. Eventually, the solar system will run into some of them, and their strong magnetic fields could compress the heliosphere even more than it is compressed now. Additional compression could allow more cosmic rays to reach the inner solar system, possibly affecting terrestrial climate and the ability of astronauts to travel safely through space. On the other hand, astronauts wouldn't have to travel so far because interstellar space would be closer than ever. These events would play out on time scales of tens to hundreds of thousands of years, which is how long it takes for the solar system to move from one cloud to the next.

"There could be interesting times ahead!" says Opher.
[link to science.nasa.gov]

Last Edited by Xenus  on 02/08/2011 04:18 AM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
1 - A. Yeghikyan
2 - H. Fahr


1 - Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, 378433, Byurakan, Armenia
2 - Institute of Astrophysics and Extraterrestrial Research (IAER), University of Bonn, Auf dem Huegel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany

 Quoting: Xenus 



Xenus   (OP)

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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Cosmic RaysHit Space Age High

We're experiencing the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, "so it is no surprise that cosmic rays are at record levels for the Space Age."

Galactic cosmic rays come from outside the solar system. They are subatomic particles--mainly protons but also some heavy nuclei--accelerated to almost light speed by distant supernova explosions. Cosmic rays cause "air showers" of secondary particles when they hit Earth's atmosphere; they pose a health hazard to astronauts; and a single cosmic ray can disable a satellite if it hits an unlucky integrated circuit.

The sun's magnetic field is our first line of defense against these highly-charged, energetic particles. The entire solar system from Mercury to Pluto and beyond is surrounded by a bubble of magnetism called "the heliosphere." It springs from the sun's inner magnetic dynamo and is inflated to gargantuan proportions by the solar wind. When a cosmic ray tries to enter the solar system, it must fight through the heliosphere's outer layers; and if it makes it inside, there is a thicket of magnetic fields waiting to scatter and deflect the intruder.

[link to science.nasa.gov]

Mysterious, Glowing Clouds Appear Across America’s Night Skies

Mysterious, glowing clouds previously seen almost exclusively in Earth’s polar regions have appeared in the skies over the United States and Europe over the past several days.


Photographers and other sky watchers in Omaha, Paris, Seattle, and other locations have run outside to capture images of what scientists call noctilucent (“night shining”) clouds. Formed by ice literally at the boundary where the earth’s atmosphere meets space 50 miles up, they shine because they are so high that they remain lit by the sun even after our star is below the horizon.

The clouds might be beautiful, but they could portend global changes caused by global warming. Noctilucent clouds are a fundamentally new phenomenon in the temperate mid-latitude sky, and it’s not clear why they’ve migrated down from the poles. Or why, over the last 25 years, more of them are appearing in the polar regions, too, and shining more brightly.

“That’s a real concern and question,” said James Russell, an atmospheric scientist at Hampton University and the principal investigator of an ongoing NASA satellite mission to study the clouds. “Why are they getting more numerous? Why are they getting brighter? Why are they appearing at lower latitudes?”

*snip*

Noctilucent clouds were first observed in 1885 by an amateur astronomer. No observations of anything resembling noctilucent clouds before that time has ever been found. There is no lack of observations of other phenomena in the sky, so atmospheric scientists are fairly sure that the phenomenon is recent, although they are not sure why.
[link to www.wired.com]
Xenus   (OP)

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All the "mysterious" events happening in our solar system, like the sun's odd behaviour for the past few years, ie, the extremely low activity, the heliosphere shrinking, cosmic rays rising, climate changing on Earth, it all points to one of these clouds entering the solar system. Or the solar system entering a cloud, depends on how you look at it and on the size of this cloud. If the cloud is dense it will push back the heliopshere to within 1 AU and leave the Earth unprotected and depending on the characteristics of the clouds, ie density, temperature, composition etc, there are various effects.


Eons ago, giant clouds in space may have led to global extinctions, according to two recent technical papers supported by NASA’s Astrobiology Institute.

One paper outlines a rare scenario in which Earth iced over during snowball glaciations, after the solar system passed through dense space clouds. In a more likely scenario, less dense giant molecular clouds may have enabled charged particles to enter Earth’s atmosphere, leading to destruction of much of the planet‘s protective ozone layer. This resulted in global extinctions, according to the second paper. Both recently appeared in the Geophysical Research Letters.

“Computer models show dramatic climate change can be caused by interstellar dust accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere during the solar system‘s immersion into a dense space cloud,” said Alex Pavlov, principal author of the two papers. He is a scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The resulting dust layer hovering over the Earth would absorb and scatter solar radiation, yet allow heat to escape from the planet into space, causing runaway ice buildup and snowball glaciations.
[link to www.universetoday.com]


These numbers confirm what astronomers have long suspected. The solar system is colliding with a vast interstellar cloud.

Most people think space is empty, but it's not. The "void" between the stars is crowded with clouds of gas. Clouds on Earth are miles wide. Clouds in space are light years across. They range in character from inky-black and cold to colorful and glowing-hot. Stars are born in clouds, and they hurl even more clouds into space when they die. Interstellar clouds are everywhere, so it's no surprise that the solar system is running into one.

The question is, what kind of cloud?
[link to science.nasa.gov]

However, because of the large flow of hydrogen from space clouds into the sun's heliosphere, the sun greatly increases its production of electrically charged cosmic rays from the hydrogen particles. This also increases the flow of cosmic rays towards Earth. Normally, Earth's magnetic field and ozone layer protect life from cosmic rays and the sun's dangerous ultraviolet radiation.

Moderately dense space clouds are huge, and the solar system could take as long as 500,000 years to cross one of them. Once in such a cloud, the Earth would be expected to undergo at least one magnetic reversal. During a reversal, electrically charged cosmic rays can enter Earth's atmosphere instead of being deflected by the planet's magnetic field.

Cosmic rays can fly into the atmosphere and break up nitrogen molecules to form nitrogen oxides. Nitrogen oxide catalysts would set off the destruction of as much as 40 percent of the protective ozone in the planet's upper atmosphere across the globe and destruction of about 80 percent of the ozone over the polar regions according to Pavlov.
[link to www.nasa.gov]


Last Edited by Xenus  on 12/08/2010 12:32 PM
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5 stars, Xenus. Good reminder as it seems to be picking up now. Are we "in" it?
Xenus   (OP)

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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
This isn't something that suddenly appeared. They've know about these clouds for over a century based on observations and data alone. So why isn't the public aware of them? Why is climate change we're experiencing from such a cloud touted as caused by human activity and not the obviously natural phenomena? There is so much evidence that such a cloud is approaching it's not even funny. The effects we see now are only merely from the fringes of it or smaller denser clumps of cloud within it.

Why does the media want you to believe the sun is going fry your electronics and knock the power out, when the sun itself is acting strangely lately? Because they don't want you to focus on the fact the sun is undergoing something strange.



The Black Cloud is a science fiction novel written by astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle. Published in 1957

Plot summary

In 1964, astrophysicists on earth become aware of an immense cloud of gas that enters the solar system. The cloud, moving to interpose itself between the sun and the earth, could wipe out most of the life on earth by blocking solar radiation and ending photosynthesis. A cadre of astronomers and other scientists is drawn together in Nortonstowe, England, to study the cloud and report to the British government about the consequences of its presence.

As the behaviour of the cloud proves to be impossible to predict scientifically, they come to the conclusion that it might be a life-form with a degree of intelligence. In an act of desperation, the scientists try to communicate with the cloud, and to their surprise succeed in doing so. The cloud is revealed to be a superorganism, many times more intelligent than humans, and who in return is surprised to find intelligent life-forms on a solid planet.

When the astronomers ask the cloud how its lifeform originated, it replies that they always existed. One of the characters suggests this is incompatible with the Big Bang theory. Thus it may be that Hoyle was hinting at his own Steady State theory of the existence of the universe, which some consider disproved by the discovery of cosmic background radiation.

The cloud then learns that another intelligent cloud has stopped communicating and may have mysteriously vanished. This happens around another star, which is not too distant by the cloud's terms, so it decides to move on. Two of the scientists die in an attempt to learn the cloud's own language through visual signals, in order to gain further insights about the universe.

Plausibility

Using a computer model of molecular dynamics, an international team has discovered that, under the right conditions, particles of inorganic dust can become organized into helical structures. These structures can interact with one another in ways that are usually associated with organic compounds and with life. Not only do these helical strands interact in a counter-intuitive way in which like can attract like, but they also undergo changes that are normally associated with biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, say the researchers. For example, they can divide to form two copies of the original structure. These new structures can also interact to induce changes in their neighbours. And they can even evolve into yet more structures as less stable ones break down, leaving behind only the fittest structures in the plasma. 'These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter,' said the lead researcher. 'They are autonomous, they reproduce and they evolve.'" The research, published in the New Journal of Physics 2007, was carried out using a computer model of molecular dynamics.

[link to en.wikipedia.org]
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
BUMP

VERY INTERESTING!

bump
He that lives upon hope will die fasting, -Benjamin Franklin
Kailan Snow

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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
nice post, but don`t you think this is still a bit off? I mean, even if we have been going through this cloud for a couple of decades now it will be still centuries before the magnetic field of the sun will shrink to 1 AU.
We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are. - Anais Nin
Xenus   (OP)

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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Whether these clouds are living is another matter but I am not the first to speculate that such a thing is indeed possible, as I have shown with the sci-fi novel before.

There is no doubt about the existence of these clouds, they exist everywhere within the universe, they give birth to stars, planets and comets etc. There is plenty of evidence to show these clouds of various densities and characteristics have passed Earth before, leaving behind them mass extinctions and massive changes. There is evidence that ancient people have witnessed such a passage, roughly 30,000 and 66,000 years ago that we know of. They witnessed auroral displays on the scale we can't even imagine, left carved onto petroglyphs and passed down as stories and myth.

Such clouds will either cause the sun to raise it's cosmic ray production or cause interstellar cosmic rays to reach our planet with ease, causing such displays of colour and movement. More details about that on my petroglyph thread; Thread: Petroglyphs, not just simple, crude drawings from ancient man. The truth is stranger then you could ever imagine.

So I stumbled onto this today while searching for new information about cosmic rays and lightning. Interesting, to say the least. Check out the .PDF for images and have a look for yourselves.

The discovery that objects from the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age carry patterns associated with high-current Z-pinches provides a possible insight into the origin and meaning of these ancient symbols produced by man. This paper directly compares the graphical and radiation data from high-current Z-pinches to these patterns. The paper focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on petroglyphs. It is found that a great many archaic petroglyphs can be classified according to plasma stability and instability data. As the same morphological types are found worldwide, the comparisons suggest the occurrence of an intense aurora, as might be produced if the solar wind had increased between one and two orders of magnitude, millennia ago.

ON July 9, 1962, the United States detonated a 1.4-megaton
thermonuclear device in the atmosphere 400 km above
Johnston Island. The event produced a plasma whose initial
spherical shape striated within a few minutes as the plasma electrons and ions streamed along the Earth’s magnetic field to produce an artificial aurora.

Concomitant with the artificial aurora was a degradation of
radio communications over wide areas of the Pacific, lightning discharges, destruction of electronics in monitoring satellites, and an electromagnetic pulse that affected some power circuitry as far away as Hawaii.

*snip*

A. Lightning
Strong electrical discharges are associated with intense inflowing charged particles. This is the lightning most often seenin connection with atmospheric discharges whose tortuosity are the jagged and complex light strokes seen in the sky and accompanied by the sound of the shock wave.

B. Heteromacs
Kukushkin and Rantsev-Kartinov at the Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia, found that, based on fractal dimension analysis of experimental data from plasma pinches, electric current-carrying plasmas are a random fractal medium. The basic building block of this medium was identified by Kukushkin and Rantsev-Kartinov to be an almost-closed helical filamentary plasma configuration called a heteromac [40].

*snip*
Petroglyphs frequently appear on the face
of rocks at heights and under conditions which seemed to
render their production impossible without the appliances of
advanced civilization, a large outlay, and the exercise of unusual skill.” Hence, like Humboldt, Mallory perhaps unconsciously subscribes to the idea that petroglyphs are other than primitive ritualistic scratchings [43].

*snip*
A discovery that the basic petroglyph morphologies are the
same as those recorded in extremely high-energy-density discharges has opened up a means to unravel the origin of these apparently crude, misdrawn, and jumbled figures found in uncounted numbers around the Earth.

Drawn in heteromac style (Fig. 12), these ancient patterns
could mimic and replicate high-energy phenomena
that would be recorded on a nonerasable plasma display screen. Many petroglyphs, apparently recorded several millennia ago, have a plasma discharge or instability counterpart, some on a one-to-one or overlay basis. More striking is that the images recorded on rock are the only images found in extreme energy density experiments; no other morphology types or patterns are observed [46], [67].

The instability is that associated with an intense current-carrying column of plasma which undergoes both sausage and helix deformations. Such a current would be produced if the solar flux from the Sun were to increase one or two magnitudes or if another source of plasma were to enter the solar system.

*snip*
Two important classes of petroglyphs, spirals and concentric
horseshoes, are not discussed in this paper. These map the
Birkeland currents as depicted in Fig. 4 and provide quantitative information on the electrical parameters. These, including solar wind-magnetosphere interactions, are being studied with TRISTAN [8], [24], [69] and will be presented elsewhere.

[link to www.scribd.com]





If a paid member could do me a favour and add in the image of the plasma column flow around the Earth from Anthony Perrat's second part of the paper [link to www.scribd.com] I would be very grateful, I think something like that is amazing, and it was all put together from using LOS (line of sight) of found petroglyphs with what parts of the sky can be seen and simulated with a super computer. All together, millions of petroglyphs show a gigantic column of light flowing past the Earth. And this was an event witnessed by many people world wide and recored the only way they could or maybe it was more of a communication, petroglyphs outlast books any day.


Hey Xenus I hope this helps you! :) (sorry about the huge size of some of the pics)

Zpinch pics from lab experiments:


Zpinch

Birklandglobe

Ancient Petroglyphs:

end2petro


 Quoting: Xenus 
Xenus   (OP)

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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
nice post, but don`t you think this is still a bit off? I mean, even if we have been going through this cloud for a couple of decades now it will be still centuries before the magnetic field of the sun will shrink to 1 AU.
 Quoting: Kailan Snow


Some estimate we entered about 1000 or 2000 years ago. It's hard to tell. A cloud is not uniform in density, it can have pockets of high and low density. Our entire understanding of what is normal in the solar system may be wrong and in reality be abnormal due to the cloud.

At the very least, we know the sun is not behaving as anyone predicted or thought it would. That IBEX found something no one expected or predicted. We know something is going on with our climate and yet we are led to believe it is all our fault and we have to pay money to fix it.
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 01:23 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Our improved understanding of the morphology and kinematics of nearby ISM in comparison to the space trajectory of the Sun permit a deeper understanding of the historical changes in the galactic environment of the Sun, and the effect
those changes have on the heliosphere. From Fig. 2, we see that within the past 100,000–200,000 years the Sun emerged from the void of the surrounding interarm region and entered the LF complex of clouds. Within the past 10,000 years, and perhaps within the past 2,000 years, the Sun appears to have entered the cloud in which it is currently situated (Frisch 1997a). The physical properties of these clouds constrain the configuration and properties of the heliosphere.
[link to arxiv.org]
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 01:27 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
This week, Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes new 3D maps of the interstellar gas situated in an area 300 parsecs around the Sun. A French-American team of astronomers presents new measurements of the absorption by the interstellar gas in the Sun's local area. Knowledge of the interstellar medium properties, including the spatial distribution, dynamics, and the chemical and physical characteristics, allow astronomers to better understand the interplay between the evolution of stars and their exchange of matter with the ambient interstellar medium. The local area around our Sun has been studied with many surveys at various wavelengths, but the whole picture is still far from being either complete or fully understood.

*snip*

The team combined their new data (mostly recorded at the European Southern Observatory in Chile) with previously published results. The new paper represents a catalog of absorption measurements towards 1857 stars located 800 parsecs from the Sun. 1 shows the NaI map of the interstellar gas density within 300 parsecs. The white area surrounding the Sun (i.e., at the center of the map) corresponds to a very low-density area of neutral gas, known as the Local Cavity. It is about 80 parsecs in radius in most directions and is surrounded by a highly fragmented "wall" of dense neutral gas. The various gaps in the wall are termed "interstellar tunnels" and represent rarefied pathways into other surrounding interstellar cavities. Maps of the distribution of CaII have never been made before, and they reveal that the Local Cavity contains numerous filamentary structures of partially ionized gas that appear to form in a honeycomb-like pattern of small interstellar cells.

[link to www.sciencedaily.com]
Anonymous Coward
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12/08/2010 01:33 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Interesting.
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 01:37 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
nice post, but don`t you think this is still a bit off? I mean, even if we have been going through this cloud for a couple of decades now it will be still centuries before the magnetic field of the sun will shrink to 1 AU.
 Quoting: Kailan Snow


New data has revealed that the heliosphere, the protective shield of energy that surrounds our solar system, has weakened by 25 per cent over the past decade and is now at it lowest level since the space race began 50 years ago.

*snip*

The heliosphere is created by the solar wind, a combination of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields that emanate a more than a million miles an hour from the sun, meet the intergalactic gas that fills the gaps in space between solar systems.
[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]

1. The sun's magnetic field is weak. "There has been a sharp decline in the sun's interplanetary magnetic field down to 4 nT (nanoTesla) from typical values of 6 to 8 nT," he says. "This record-low interplanetary magnetic field undoubtedly contributes to the record-high cosmic ray fluxes." [data]

2. The solar wind is flagging. "Measurements by the Ulysses spacecraft show that solar wind pressure is at a 50-year low," he continues, "so the magnetic bubble that protects the solar system is not being inflated as much as usual." A smaller bubble gives cosmic rays a shorter-shot into the solar system. Once a cosmic ray enters the solar system, it must "swim upstream" against the solar wind. Solar wind speeds have dropped to very low levels in 2008 and 2009, making it easier than usual for a cosmic ray to proceed. [data]

3. The current sheet is flattening. Imagine the sun wearing a ballerina's skirt as wide as the entire solar system with an electrical current flowing along its wavy folds. It's real, and it's called the "heliospheric current sheet," a vast transition zone where the polarity of the sun's magnetic field changes from plus to minus. The current sheet is important because cosmic rays are guided by its folds. Lately, the current sheet has been flattening itself out, allowing cosmic rays more direct access to the inner solar system.

*snip*

"The space era has so far experienced a time of relatively low cosmic ray activity," says Mewaldt. "We may now be returning to levels typical of past centuries."
[link to science.nasa.gov]

(I did give the link for this before, I hate it when people don't actually read anything and just state their useless opinion.)
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 01:39 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Interesting.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 1188597


I had this thread up before, but it mysteriously vanished from the GLP database and no mod could even explain how or why it happened, but they did apologize. Let's see if this one manages to stay up...
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 01:48 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Just a quick overview of what plasma is for those who don't know;

Plasma consists of a collection of free-moving electrons and ions - atoms that have lost electrons. Energy is needed to strip electrons from atoms to make plasma. The energy can be of various origins: thermal, electrical, or light (ultraviolet light or intense visible light from a laser). With insufficient sustaining power, plasmas recombine into neutral gas.

All of the following are examples where plasmas are to be found:
Lightning!
The Sun—from Core to Corona
Fluorescent Lights and Neon Signs
Nebulae - Luminous Clouds in Space
The Solar Wind
Primordial Fusion during the evolution of the Universe
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Plasmas
Inertially Confined Fusion Plasmas
Flames as Plasmas*
Auroras - the Northern and Southern Lights
Interstellar Space - it's not empty, it's a plasma!
Quasars, Radiogalaxies, and Galaxies—they emit plasma radiation and microwaves
Large Scale Structures of Galaxies—their filamentary and magnetized!
Dense Solid State Matter—when shocked by nuclear explosion or earthquakes, emit both light and radio emission.

While all matter is subject to gravitational forces, the positively charged nuclei, or ions, and the negatively charged electrons react strongly to electromagnetic forces, as formulated by James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853-1928). because of this strong interaction with electromagnetism, plasmas display a compexity in structure that far exceeds that found in matter in the gaseous, liquid, or solid states. In addition to the cellular structure, most visible to us on the Sun, plasmas most often display a filamentary structure. This structure drives from the fact that plasma, becaue ot its free electrons, is an excellent conductor of electricity, far exceeding the conducting properties of metals such as copper or gold. For example, the ballast resistor in a fluorescent lighting system is included for good reason. The florescent gas, as weakly ionized as it is, would completely short circuit the electrical main supply without the resistor. Wherever charged particles flow in a neutralizing medium, such as free electrons in a background of ions, the charged particle flow or current produces a ring of magnetic field around the current, pinching the plasma into multi-filamentary strands of conduction currents.

Beyond the filamentation, by far the most distinguishing characteristic of energetic plasma in comparison with the states of matter on the crustal regions of planets is that plasma are prodigious producers of electromagnetic radiation.

Gases, liquids and solids can be ionized, by intense beams of laser light, intense electromagnetic pulses, and nuclear explosions. In each case, these states can be made to produce electromagnetic radiation but the phenomenon is weak and short lived and the degree of ionization weak compared to plasma. Errors in perception have also been made, especially in the case of 'Ionized Gases,' a topic studied intensely in the early 1900's. However, gases and plasmas are distinct states of matter. The fluids states of gas and liquid are treated with the Navier-Stokes equation whereas plasmas are treated with the Boltzmann and Maxwell equations. The term 'plasma' is for everyone and not just for specialists. Sometimes the solar wind is described as a "vast stream of ions" but this leads to an incomplete description of the physics of the wind as electrons and electromagnetic fields are not included., In spite of their mathematical complexity, the acknowledgement of their existence throught space and utilization in industrial processes (80% of the manufacture of computing chips requires a plasma) it is time to acknowledge that 'plasmas' are for everyone.

[link to plasmascience.net]

Last Edited by Xenus  on 12/08/2010 01:48 PM
Anonymous Coward
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12/08/2010 01:49 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
bump
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 02:11 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
I had hoped for a discussion or something about the subject of these clouds. Do people understand the ramifications of what these clouds can do? Or are people just too afraid to even think about this? For me, this explains many things that are happening right now... and makes me wonder just who else knows about this and why no one else has come to the same conclusions as me.

The articles supplied I read years ago and didn't think too much of them, but put them together with the information about the space clouds and a whole new picture begins to emerge.
Anonymous Coward
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12/08/2010 02:12 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
you found .me.
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 02:18 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
you found .me.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 1188617


I don't get it... but thanks for the bump. I should have waited for a calmer and slower day on GLP. This is crazy.
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 04:07 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Most of the pins are mainstream news, GLP appears to have sold out like everything else.... You won't find this on the news. Gotta give the sheeple what they want, right...
icphotons

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12/08/2010 04:09 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
5 stars as always!

added to favs to read later.
DedAMraZ
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12/08/2010 04:29 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Most of the pins are mainstream news, GLP appears to have sold out like everything else.... You won't find this on the news. Gotta give the sheeple what they want, right...
 Quoting: Xenus 

clappa

cHk theSe oUt...
[link to www3.nict.go.jp]
&
[link to www3.nict.go.jp]

ohno
Khalen

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12/08/2010 04:48 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Oh I am keeping a very close eye on developments in relation to this phenomenon Xenus. I have been ever since I came across your original thread on the subject. It is happening and it is happening rapidly. What the final outcome is going to be is very unclear at this point though.
As his vision slowly cleared, the traveler came to the startling realization that he had been sitting by the side of the road, repeatedly hitting himself in the head with his walking staff. He had in fact been doing this for a quarter of a century.

Shaking his head at his own folly, he dusted himself off, set his gaze upon the road up the mountain and once more set off upon his journey.
SAM
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12/08/2010 04:53 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
My sense of it has always been that, initially, we will have some exponentially increasing sense of a vibration(Schuman?) that is earth based and a harmonic relative to a larger universal fundamental that will clash with all the manmade high frequency noise in our field.

Once this harmonic has enough of our attention, and, obviously, people are hearing/feeling/sensing it on many levels already, a new new harmonic relationship will be created where the universal harmonic meets the cognizant human attention vibration. It is within this new field that the greatest potential exists and the most significant changes will take place.

We are all in this together, yet it is "every man" for themselves. There will be an increasing ado about the goings on outside of us, yet the only way to truly deal with it will be from our relationship to it from within.

Our brains and bodies are akin to radio tuners and receiver/transmitters.....we are free to tune into any station we choose.

Choose wisely with the ear of your heart.


Waiting for the winds of change to sweep the clouds away

Waiting for the rainbows end to cast it's gold your way

Countless ways......

We pass the days.
"


"In your head is the answer let it guide you along

Let your head be the anchor and the beat of your song




Thanks Xenus peace
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 05:02 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
Oh I am keeping a very close eye on developments in relation to this phenomenon Xenus. I have been ever since I came across your original thread on the subject. It is happening and it is happening rapidly. What the final outcome is going to be is very unclear at this point though.
 Quoting: Khalen


That is true, unlike all the people who claim they know what is going to happen when in fact they do not, I know that there are simply too many variables to understand exactly what will happen... Are these clouds alive or not? What are the characteristics of the clouds, density, temp, composition etc. These are the important variables and unknowns.

I don't expect people to believe me, that is why I provide information for people to think and learn. All people need to do is some reading and learning, the information is all here and more at the links I provide since the 50% rule. I only pick the most important bits within the allowed rules.

As much as I want to be proven wrong about the entire thing, no one has managed to do so... It's happened in the past and it's happening now. It's no longer healthy for us as a species to ignore our cosmic environment when the reality is, it has such a great effect on our climate and our lives. When the environment changes, so do the beings living in it, that is simple evolution.
Anonymous Coward
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12/08/2010 05:10 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
I'm here to, Xenus. Been busy of late, but I'm really looking forward to going over this.

BTW, I think you are totally correct in saying that people do not understand what the ICs mean to the environment...I have found, even in the simplest form, it goes over people's heads. I cannot believe it, but true. I have found I must explain this scenario from the ground up...starting at: the sun's solar wind creates a bubble.

It does?
weldgirl
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12/08/2010 05:17 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
bump

good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Xenus   (OP)

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12/08/2010 05:20 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
I'm here to, Xenus. Been busy of late, but I'm really looking forward to going over this.

BTW, I think you are totally correct in saying that people do not understand what the ICs mean to the environment...I have found, even in the simplest form, it goes over people's heads. I cannot believe it, but true. I have found I must explain this scenario from the ground up...starting at: the sun's solar wind creates a bubble.

It does?

:picker:
 Quoting: Sickscent


It's pretty much the same as the thread which disappeared, same title word for word, just more condensed information and a few new additions. This time I think I will try to keep the information to the first page and discussion to the rest.

Some people ask, what is the solar wind... the ignorance of some people is really astounding, despite the fact we have information so freely available... We're not in the medieval times anymore, people can read and write (for the most part) but they simply refuse to learn. A human who doesn't learn is a zombie with no soul.
Anonymous Coward
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12/08/2010 05:23 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
All the "mysterious" events happening in our solar system, like the sun's odd behaviour for the past few years, ie, the extremely low activity, the heliosphere shrinking, cosmic rays rising, climate changing on Earth, it all points to one of these clouds entering the solar system. Or the solar system entering a cloud, depends on how you look at it and on the size of this cloud. If the cloud is dense it will push back the heliopshere to within 1 AU and leave the Earth unprotected and depending on the characteristics of the clouds, ie density, temperature, composition etc, there are various effects.


Eons ago, giant clouds in space may have led to global extinctions, according to two recent technical papers supported by NASA’s Astrobiology Institute.

 Quoting: Xenus 

Hey everybody..ITS AUSSIE BLOKE!!!!

HE HAS RETURNED!!!!


5a
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12/08/2010 05:23 PM
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Re: Dense interstellar space clouds (like the one we're entering) and you, what will happen? Can cause magnetic reversal.
I'm here to, Xenus. Been busy of late, but I'm really looking forward to going over this.

BTW, I think you are totally correct in saying that people do not understand what the ICs mean to the environment...I have found, even in the simplest form, it goes over people's heads. I cannot believe it, but true. I have found I must explain this scenario from the ground up...starting at: the sun's solar wind creates a bubble.

It does?

:picker:


It's pretty much the same as the thread which disappeared, same title word for word, just more condensed information and a few new additions. This time I think I will try to keep the information to the first page and discussion to the rest.

Some people ask, what is the solar wind... the ignorance of some people is really astounding, despite the fact we have information so freely available... We're not in the medieval times anymore, people can read and write (for the most part) but they simply refuse to learn. A human who doesn't learn is a zombie with no soul.
 Quoting: Xenus 

Xenus, what can anyone regardless of their ignorance, actually do about solar wind?





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