Scientists learn what makes auroras flare


	Scientists learn what makes auroras flare

pokkets

7-25-2008 4:56 PM

360 views

pokkets says:

It's magnetic, not electrical energy. a lot of scientists were sure they knew, but there's nothing like being sure.

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7-25-2008 6:00 PM

kkcapricorn

No one is ever so sure of a scientist's findings and their meanings as the scientist him/her self.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/2d18f2e6-5a83-4bad-bcee-a6ea40be4315/0DC95748-CF6B-42DB-877A-6741CFEAC5D9/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest" href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest" style="font-size: 11px;">www.abc.net.au</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P class="first">The mystery behind what causes the spectacular brightening of multicoloured lights to appear above the earth's polar regions, known as aurora, may be solved according to a new scientific paper.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.abc.net.au/img/C214C4A6-C67F-4C36-AC83-2854EFC5EEF3" alt="earth aurora" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>Scientists using data from five <A target="_blank" href="http://www.nasa.gov">NASA</A> satellites have found that the spectacular brightening of aurora, known as flare-ups, are caused by explosions of magnetic energy occurring a third of the way between earth and the moon.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>Their findings resolve a 30-year debate about what causes these events, and appears in the latest edition of <A target="_blank" href="http://www.sciencemag.org"><EM>Science</EM></A>.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest">Some scientists believed that auroral flare-ups were the result of a build up of charged ions relatively close to the earth, suddenly released by an explosive instability</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest">But the new findings confirm a second theory that auroral flare-ups are the result of magnetic field lines colliding and releasing large amounts of kinetic energy towards earth, a process called "magnetic reconnection"</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest"> researchers used</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/25/2314673.htm?site=science&topic=latest">the <A target="_blank" href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/">THEMIS</A> satellites and a network of 20 ground observatories</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/0DC95748-CF6B-42DB-877A-6741CFEAC5D9/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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