Insights & More

Solar Storms Wipe Out Electrons in Earth’s Radiation Belt – Video

By Cassie Ryan
Epoch Times Staff

As the sun approaches solar maximum in 2013, new light has been shed upon the effect of solar events on our planet’s magnetosphere, according to a study to be published in Nature Physics on Jan. 29.

Astronomers at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) have discovered that most of the electrons in the Earth’s outer radiation belt vanish at the start of a geomagnetic storm, only to reappear a few hours later. This doughnut-shaped region is full of energetic electrons traveling at almost light speed.

“It’s a puzzling effect,” said study co-author Vassilis Angelopoulos in a press release. “Oceans on Earth do not suddenly lose most of their water, yet radiation belts filled with electrons can be rapidly depopulated.”

Originally noticed by scientists in the 1960s, the team elucidated this mystery using data collected from a fleet of orbiters, including NASA’s THEMIS spacecraft (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms).

“What we are studying was the first discovery of the space age,” said study co-author Yuri Shprits in the release. “People realized that launches of spacecraft didn’t only make the news, they could also make scientific discoveries that were completely unexpected.”

Read more: Solar Storms Wipe Out Electrons in Earth’s Radiation Belt Video | Space & Astronomy | Science | Epoch Times

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Exoplanets Are the Norm for Milky Way Star Systems

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By Cassie Ryan
Epoch Times Staff

Extrasolar planets may be more abundant in our galaxy than previously thought, according to new research to be published in Nature on Jan. 12.

Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) spent six years surveying millions of stars in the Milky Way and found that a star will probably be orbited by more than one planet.

Previously, two methods have been used to find exoplanets: detection of the planet’s gravitational pull on its host star, and observing the planet dimming its star’s light as it passes in front of it.

However, these techniques are best for locating planets that are massive or circling their stars closely. Consequently, many other exoplanets may be missed. In contrast, gravitational lensing can find planets with a wide range of masses, as well as those orbiting their suns at a distance.

“We have searched for evidence for exoplanets in six years of microlensing observations,” said study lead author Arnaud Cassan at France’s Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris in a press release. “Remarkably, these data show that planets are more common than stars in our galaxy.”

“We also found that lighter planets, such as super-Earths or cool Neptunes, must be more common than heavier ones.”

The gravitational field of a star can act as a lens, magnifying the brightness of a background star. If a planet is circling the lensing star, it adds to the magnifying effect. The scientists looked for this effect in data from the PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) and OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) surveys.

Despite the technique’s power, its planet-hunting potential is limited by the coincidence of two factors: the chance that a background and lensing star will align correctly is very rare, and the planet’s orbit needs to be aligned too.

Three exoplanets were discovered during the six-year search—a super-Earth and two planets with masses similar to Neptune and Jupiter. This is a good outcome for such a fine-tuned technique, suggesting that the astronomers were either very lucky or exoplanets are commonplace in our galaxy.

In their statistical analysis, the scientists included seven other exoplanets, and the many non-detections from the observations, to determine that one in six of the stars surveyed hosts a Jupiter-like planet, half of them have Neptune-mass planets, and two-thirds have super-Earths.

“We used to think that the Earth might be unique in our galaxy,” concluded study co-lead author Daniel Kubas at the ESO in the release. “But now it seems that there are literally billions of planets with masses similar to Earth orbiting stars in the Milky Way.”

via Exoplanets Are the Norm for Milky Way Star Systems | Space & Astronomy | Science | Epoch Times

Related Articles:

• Habitable Exoplanets Catalog: An Online Database of Liveable Worlds
• Youngest Exoplanet Spotted Being Born
• Microcosmic Threads Weave Fabric of Our Universe Together
• Astronomers Find Two-Star Systems Common in Universe

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Laws of Physics Differ Across the Universe

By David Skoumbourdis
Epoch Times Staff

Electromagnetism appears to vary with location, according to new research, which challenges one of science’s most fundamental principles–that the laws of physics remain constant across the universe.

The study found that electromagnetism, one of the four known fundamental forces in nature, seems to differ across the universe. Electromagnetism is measured as the fine-structure constant and is represented by the symbol alpha.

Variation in alpha’s value was first observed a decade ago by John Webb and Victor Flambaum at Australia’s New South Wales University (UNSW) and colleagues, after analyzing observations of a large area in the sky from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

As part of a new international effort, the number of observations has now been doubled and the value of alpha measured in approximately 300 distant galaxies, using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

“The results astonished us,” Webb said in a media release. “In one direction–from our location in the universe–alpha gets gradually weaker, yet in the opposite direction it gets gradually stronger.”

If confirmed, the discovery will have profound implications regarding our understanding of time-space as it violates one of the fundamental principles underlying Einstein’s General Relativity theory, Webb said.

“Such violations are actually expected in some more modern ‘Theories of Everything’ that try to unify all the known fundamental forces,” said Flambaum. “The smooth continuous change in alpha may also imply the universe is much larger than our observable part of it, possibly infinite.”

This research may have even wider significance.

“Even a slight change in the laws of nature means they weren’t ‘set in stone’ when our universe was born,” he continued. “The laws of nature you see may depend on your ‘space-time address’–when and where you happen to live in the universe.”

Webb said that the findings could also explain why the laws of nature appear to support the existence of life.

“The answer may be that other regions of the universe are not quite so favorable for life as we know it, and that the laws of physics we measure in our part of the universe are merely ‘local by-laws’, in which case it is no particular surprise to find life here,” he concluded.

The study was published in Physical Review Letters on Oct. 31.

via Laws of Physics Differ Across the Universe | Epoch Times

Related Articles: NASA Probe Confirms Key Predictions in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

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Does Our Universe Have an Edge?

By Christy Su
Epoch Times Staff

Einstein hypothesized that the universe is like a flat sheet that runs on forever, deformed by matter such as stars and galaxies. However, scientists continue to question whether the universe really is infinite.

The further away a galaxy or star is from Earth, the older it is. Today, we can see back to a maximum of about 13 billion years ago where there is a space containing the aftershock of the big bang.

This space is filled with gas and plasma so hot that light cannot pass through, forming a layer of cosmic microwave background radiation that is separating us from a possible boundary of the universe.

But regardless of our limited ability to research the space beyond, cosmologists use logic to reason that our universe is finite.

According to the big bang theory, the universe was once a small condensed ball of energy. When it exploded, all the matter and space in that ball expanded outwards, and continues to expand to this day, making it an infinite universe.

However, physicist Andreas Albrecht at University of California, Davis compares the expanding universe to blowing a bubble. He says inflation must stop when space gets to a certain maximum size which he predicts is about 20 percent bigger than its current size.

Cosmologist Neil Cornish at Montana State University agrees that the universe is finite.

“So one problem with an infinite universe—it’s not just infinite in space, but also infinite in time. It has no beginning,” he said in a recent episode of Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole.

“You have an infinite number of stars, so the sky would be just completely covered in white,” he added. “Bright, bright, so bright that it would fry you.”

However, the stars are actually sparsely distributed in space with darkness all around, contradicting the infinite theory.

‘Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.’—Albert Einstein

So if the universe really is finite, what would it be like?

Jean-Pierre Luminet, a cosmologist at the Paris Observatory, likens the universe to an enormous musical instrument, explaining that the larger a piano, or any other instrument, the greater the range of harmonics that can be heard.

He analyzed vibration ripples in the cosmic microwave backgound and found it is missing the longest wavelengths or “low tones,” supporting the theory of a finite universe.

Based on his research, Luminet believes the perfect shape of the universe is a three-dimensional dodecahedron, ie it has 12 sides like a soccer ball.

Read more: Does Our Universe Have an Edge? | Epoch Times

Related Articles: Galaxy Rotation Explains Asymmetric Nature of Universe

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Magnetic Ropes Trigger Solar Storms

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Epoch Times Staff

Images from NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory SDO spacecraft have shown that solar storms are caused by a rapid phenomenon known as a magnetic rope.

Associate professor Jie Zhang and graduate student Xin Cheng at George Mason University looked at images taken with SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) telescope, which captures imagery every 10 seconds. They zoomed in on a solar region where a magnetic rope was forming.

“The magnetic rope triggers a solar eruption,” said Zhang in a press release. “Scientists have been debating whether or not this magnetic rope exists before a solar eruption. I believe that the result of this excellent observation helps finally solve this controversial issue.”

During a solar storm, the sun sends out giant clouds of plasma with a strong magnetic field. The telescope showed that a long, low channel courses through the active region beforehand, slowly rising as it heats up to as much as 10 million degrees. This channel is believed to be the magnetic rope.

Read more: Magnetic Ropes Trigger Solar Storms | Science | Epoch Times