Riding the Interface Region

Homepage of Priscilla C. Frisch
[link to astro.uchicago.edu]

Solar journey: The significance of our galactic environment for the heliosphere and earth
[link to www.springerlink.com]

Is the Sun Embedded in a Typical Interstellar Cloud? Connecting Interstellar Gas in and out of the Heliosphere
[link to www.springerlink.com]

Solar Journey: The Significance of our
Galactic Environment for the
Heliosphere and Earth
Priscilla C. Frisch
University of Chicago, IL, USA
Humans evolved when the Sun was in the great void of the Local Bubble. The Sun entered the present environment of interstellar clouds only during the late Quaternary. Astronomical data reveal these long and short term changes in our galactic environment. Theoretical models then tell us how these changes affect interplanetary particles, planetary magnetospheres, and the Earth itself. Cosmic rays leave an isotopic signature in the paleoclimate record that helps trace the solar journey through space.
"Solar Journey: The Significance of Our Galactic Environment for the Heliosphere and Earth" lays the foundation for an interdisciplinary study of the influence of interstellar material on the solar system and Earth as we travel through the Milky Way Galaxy.
The solar wind bubble responds dynamically to interstellar material flowing past the Sun, regulating interstellar gas, dust, and cosmic particle fluxes in the interplanetary medium and the Earth. Cones of interstellar gas and dust focused by solar gravity, the magnetospheres of the outer planets, and cosmic rays at Earth all might yield the first
hints of changes in our galactic environment.
[link to astro.uchicago.edu]

From the link: italics are mine.

"An alternative possibility for the boundary (rather than a smooth temp gradient) is that of a turbulent mixing layer (Slavin et al., 1993). This would be the case if there is a substantial velocity difference between the CLIC (cluster of local interstellar clouds...what we are currently passing through) gas and that of the hot gas (Local bubble plasma medium). Even relative velocities on the order of the sound speed in the hot gas or less could be very disruptive to the cooler clouds and could lead to an interface in which the cool gas is being entrained in the hotter gas, mixed and then cooled.

Such an interface is similar in some ways to the evaporative boundary described above, but depends on hydrodynamic instabilities to create the mixing of the cloud gas into the hot bubble gas. The crossing of this type of interface could also be very disruptive of the heliosphere with the likelihood of small scale condensations and velocity fluctuations as well as sudden variations in ionization in the matter incident on the Solar System."


I love how they say "small scale condensations" when regarding clouds of plasma many times larger than the entire solar system.

Last Edited by Apotheosis Rex Khristos on 12/22/2010 06:35 PM

Some of these things would have rather large 'effects' on the inside of the heliosphere. Much of it is discussed as 'particles' and their 'density (heat and amount), not even discussing the electric/magnetic component of it. It goes into some 'magnetic' components, but nothing the research understands in any way. Most of the research is mathematical formulas...densities, temperatures, etc...not conductivity of it and pressures it brings to our environment....influx of cosmic rays and such...but were talking about stuff they have NO idea about. This is BRAND NEW SCIENCE!

Xenus' threads point to exactly these kind of changes. I need to post the links.

One thing that I find really curious is that the interstellar plasma could retain the incredible amount of heat it has, over the time span involved. Especially considering the dispersion of it.

Alright, what about this for an answer, khalen... we have 'currents' connecting source to source, with plasma being the conductor, NOT the source. Birkeland currents...pathways that do not create the surges of energy, but transport it.

Yes, that would do it all right. Makes a lot more sense than their theory of it being residual heat from the original supernova. Thanks SS.

:thumbsup:

BTW, I think that it would be both...

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

Hmm yes, I should have said residual heat that was not being maintained by some force over that vast a time period.

lol...I think we both know that...just clarification...

BTW, Khalen, I have always seen your posts as parallel thoughts to mine...

:boobbump:

I love your posts SS....scary but awesome

Thank you

Interstellar Cloud Material: Contribution to Planetary Atmospheres

A statistical analysis of the properties of dense interstellar clouds indicates that the solar system has encountered at least a dozen clouds of sufficient density to cause planets to accumulate nonnegligible amounts of some isotopes. The effect is most pronounced for neon. This mechanism could be responsible for much of the neon in Earth's atmosphere. For Mars, the predicted amount of neon added by cloud encounters greatly exceeds the present abundance.
[link to www.sciencemag.org]

1 Introduction
The heliosphere is the magnetic bubble carved out of the interstellar medium by the expanding solar wind. A recurring idea is that during the Sun’s lifetime encounters with dense interstellar environments have compressed the heliosphere,
enhancing cosmic ray fluxes and hydrogen accretion, affecting atmospheric chemistry (including ozone), and perhaps altering surface mutation rates and climate.

[link to arxiv.org]


On its journey around the Galaxy, the Sun is likely to encounter a variety of such interstellar environments, each of which is characterized by a set of physical quantities, including density, temperature, magnetic field, and velocity state. As the solar wind is often assumed to have been relatively stable over long periods of time, the question arises how the heliosphere has reacted to the differing interstellar environments encountered through time. We characterize in this paper the heliospheric response to some non-catastrophic changes in the interstellar environment (“galactic weather”). Studies like this, paired with cosmic ray calculations and investigations of the terrestrial consequences of changes in the interplanetary medium due to galactic weather events, will contribute to the understanding of long-ago
events that left their mark in terrestrial records.
A concrete example is the evidence that the relatively warm and dense material of the contemporary local interstellar cloud (LIC) is thought to be embedded in a larger structure,
the Local Bubble (LB). With some reasonable assumptions, it can be estimated that the Sun was exposed to the tenuous, very hot LB environment for a long time, has only entered the LIC some 40,000 years ago, and will exit it in 0–4000 years from now.

*snip*

The ISM is a very dynamic environment. During its 5 Gyrs galactic trajectory, the solar system likely has been embedded in a wide variety of different interstellar environments. Some of these environments lead to a drastically reduced heliosphere size, allowing direct
access of interstellar material to the solar system and Earth. Even without direct ISM access, the particle flux background like cosmic rays and dust is sensitive to the ISM environment.

The passage of the solar system through an arm of the galaxy likely triggers a pronounced increase of both the rate of supernovae going off near the Sun, and the flux of galactic cosmic rays. Consequences for the terrestrial atmosphere/climate, and their geological records, are
likely (e.g., Frisch, 2006), but not part of this paper.
[link to arxiv.org]

All the ELE events of the past were due to some cosmic event, galactic weather events. They caused instant freezing and formed glaciers, freezing both flora and fauna literally overnight. Now those same glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate. We have a massive abundance of isotopes from space clouds located all over the Earth, evidence of drastic and massive climate changes in the past which all have these isotopes stored in ice and in the ocean floors and rock. These events depend greatly on the type of cloud the we encounter.

Logically, if the cloud is cold we would see a decrease in temperature, if the cloud is hot, we would see an increase. The clouds tend to have a lot of hydrogen, and what happen when hydrogen mixes with our oxygen? H2O. Cooler clouds will rain down ice, hotter clouds would rain down plasma. Comets and asteroids are the product of both fire and ice, formed inside these clouds. This is of course not including all the other complex interactions like magnetic and electric fields and our magnetosphere.

More importantly there is also evidence on Mars and the moon of these isotope abundances, which clearly shows that these ELE do not just happen on Earth, so it cannot be something as simple as a comet hitting the planet, but something as large in scale as these clouds. On an interesting note, such clouds also create amino acids which are the basis of life, found in many meteorites and with spectroscopy viewing of clouds in space.

List of molecules found in such clouds;
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Humans evolved when the Sun was in the great void of the Local Bubble. The Sun entered the present environment of interstellar clouds only during the late Quaternary. Astronomical data reveal these long and short term changes in our galactic environment. Theoretical models then tell us how these changes affect interplanetary particles, planetary magnetospheres, and the Earth itself. Cosmic rays leave an isotopic signature in the paleoclimate record that helps trace the solar journey through space.

"Solar Journey: The Significance of Our Galactic Environment for the Heliosphere and Earth" lays the foundation for an interdisciplinary study of the influence of interstellar material on the solar system and Earth as we travel through the Milky Way Galaxy. The solar wind bubble responds dynamically to interstellar material flowing past the Sun, regulating interstellar gas, dust, and cosmic particle fluxes in the interplanetary medium and the Earth. Cones of interstellar gas and dust focused by solar gravity, the magnetospheres of the outer planets, and cosmic rays at Earth all might yield the first hints of changes in our galactic environment.

Twelve articles from leading experts in diverse fields discuss the physical changes expected as the heliosphere adjusts to its galactic environment. Topics include the interaction between the solar wind and interstellar dust and gas, cosmic ray modulation, magnetospheres, temporal variations in the solar environment, and the cosmic ray isotope record preserved in paleoclimate data.

[link to avaxhome.ws]

Everyone interested should download the ebook and read it over, even if it's too technical for some people, the discussion and conclusions should explain it in a way most people should understand.

+1000

I found this as a pdf as well Xenus.

free??? Springer says i have to be a member............all thats free is the index??

oops, damnit, sorry. Use Xenus' link [link to avaxhome.ws]

:bumps:

bump indeed *drools*

Ah now what did I want to say... Oh yeah, I doubt anyone actually downloaded and read the .pdf, it's pretty technical. But at least the abstracts and the conclusions and discussions simplify things a lot. I wonder if the ancient monoliths humans built have anything to do with these regions of space. The cosmic ray density and intensity during these times of passages could have been harvested and used by the ancients in a way we cannot really begin to understand. Would explain why they watched the skies so often and recorded virtually everything they saw.