solar wind, heliosphere, plasmas, etc

Posted by lanecove on September 16, 2003 at 05:13:00:

In Reply to: Re: Dimension is Relative to Metric Points:) posted by DickT on September 15, 2003 at 15:03:34:

Dick (actually more for sol),

EM radiation which deviates from inverse square law once it has left the surface of a star (or planet) includes:
- all absorption phenomena, e.g. dust, high density plasma (absorbs low frequency radio), gas (photo-ionisation)
- all reflection/scattering phenomena, e.g. dust, planets, inverse-Compton (esp CMB)
- all fluorescence phenomena (a variation of absorption) ... well, you get the picture.

There are natural masers, around proto-stars (and maybe other places), some involving H₂O molecules (or is it OH radicals), but none from the Sun.

Particles emitted by the Sun form the solar wind, which goes until it hits the heliopause, a shockwave front between the solar wind and the interstellar medium (no spacecraft from Earth have got there yet, not Pioneer 9 or 10, neither Voyager). Although there are some neutral particles in the wind, it's mostly ions (some bare nuclei) and electrons, and forms a plasma. Lots of fascinating things happen in the solar wind plasma, and its density (and temperature) varies greatly in space and in time. As well as the well-known, if still not fully understood, solar flares, there are CMEs (coronal mass ejections), and probably other goodies too.

Sadly, no need for strings, branes, extra dimensions, holons, axions, WIMPS, even neutrinos; it's just boring plasma physics.

Regards
lanecove

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Follow Ups: (Reload page to see most recent)

• Re: solar wind, heliosphere, plasmas, etc -- rtharbaugh 9/16/03 (4)
  • X-rays from the dark side of the Moon -- lanecove 9/17/03 (2)
    • X-rays from the dark side of consciousness -- rtharbaugh 9/17/03 (1)
      • Re: X-rays from the dark side of consciousness -- lanecove 9/17/03 (0)
  • here is the link -- rtharbaugh 9/16/03 (0)
• Discrete versus Continuity? -- sol 9/16/03 (2)
  • Re: Discrete versus Continuity? -- lanecove 9/16/03 (0)
  • Geometry is Better then Topology? -- sol 9/16/03 (0)

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