Very interesting, and it prodded me to look further into stellar magnetic fields. It brought back the half-forgotten word "magnetar" which is an interesting subject in itself. If you look at the article you'll find the methods used to determine the strength of a star's magnetic field ie the Zeeman effect and the polarization of te star's light. For the life of me I can't see how this could be used to measure the strength of the field rather than just giving a qualitative yes or no.
The solar wind is, of course, generated by electrical currents in the Sun, and I'm given to understand that we are far from a full understanding of the mechanism. It's interesting that the Sun reverses polarity every 22 years while the timing of reversals of the Earth's magnetic poles is much, much longer. I wonder at the difference.
In any case I came on the following phrase explaining how the magnetic fields produce sunspots, "when the Sun's magnetic field lines suddenly organize". I got a giggle, "Disorganize" would be a better word to describe what are often referred to as "tangles". The author should have chosen something like "converge". The "organize" word creates a fantasy of the lines all taking out union cards and going on strike. Hence the solar minima ? Now the solar picket line would be the longest ever seen.
Such solar storms occur fairly often, and they have been known to have effects on satellites and on the ground. If memory serves me well (it doesn't always) the last real and true 'biggie' happened way back in the 1800s.
[–] burtzev 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
Very interesting, and it prodded me to look further into stellar magnetic fields. It brought back the half-forgotten word "magnetar" which is an interesting subject in itself. If you look at the article you'll find the methods used to determine the strength of a star's magnetic field ie the Zeeman effect and the polarization of te star's light. For the life of me I can't see how this could be used to measure the strength of the field rather than just giving a qualitative yes or no.
The solar wind is, of course, generated by electrical currents in the Sun, and I'm given to understand that we are far from a full understanding of the mechanism. It's interesting that the Sun reverses polarity every 22 years while the timing of reversals of the Earth's magnetic poles is much, much longer. I wonder at the difference.
In any case I came on the following phrase explaining how the magnetic fields produce sunspots, "when the Sun's magnetic field lines suddenly organize". I got a giggle, "Disorganize" would be a better word to describe what are often referred to as "tangles". The author should have chosen something like "converge". The "organize" word creates a fantasy of the lines all taking out union cards and going on strike. Hence the solar minima ? Now the solar picket line would be the longest ever seen.
Such solar storms occur fairly often, and they have been known to have effects on satellites and on the ground. If memory serves me well (it doesn't always) the last real and true 'biggie' happened way back in the 1800s.