It turns out that they do, sort of, and a NASA-funded researcher at the University of Iowa has figured out how to find them.
"We call them X-points or electron diffusion regions," explains plasma physicist Jack Scudder of the University of Iowa. "They're places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun's atmosphere 93 million miles away."
Observations by NASA's THEMIS spacecraft and Europe's Cluster probes suggest that these magnetic portals open and close dozens of times each day. They're typically located a few tens of thousands of kilometers from Earth where the geomagnetic field meets the onrushing solar wind. Most portals are small and short-lived; others are yawning, vast, and sustained. Tons of energetic particles can flow through the openings, heating Earth's upper atmosphere, sparking geomagnetic storms, and igniting bright polar auroras.
NASA is planning a mission called "MMS," short for Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, due to launch in 2014, to study the phenomenon. Bristling with energetic particle detectors and magnetic sensors, the four spacecraft of MMS will spread out in Earth's magnetosphere and surround the portals to observe how they work.
Just one problem: Finding them. Magnetic portals are invisible, unstable, and elusive. They open and close without warning "and there are no signposts to guide us in," notes Scudder.
Actually, there are signposts, and Scudder has found them. . . .
* Special Thanks To Andrew Ackerley
Continue Reading . . .
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I wonder ... In the Vaishnava faith, it is accepted that Gokula in India is in fact identical with the highmost spiritual realm of Goloka in the spiritual sky.
ReplyDeleteThough the geographical region of Gokula appears to the mundane eye to be entirely physical, like any other region of this planet, it is said that anyone who leaves their body at the time of death whilst physically situated in this region will automatically be taken to the highmost spiritual dimension, to dwell there, since that is the realm that all souls without exception originated from before entering the material realm.
Although all other planets are said to be inhabited, on the surface or inside, all planets being hollow, even the sun, that being a demigodly heavenly planet within the higher material dimension of this universe, this planet is said to be unique in all this universe in presenting such a perfect opportunity for spiritual ascension.
Magnetic or not, Gokula is a sort of spiritual 'wormhole' that presents a wonderful opportunity for all to enter the spiritual abode with God, Krishna, and become truly whole in spiritual self-cognizance once again. Everyone should visit there, as there are many great spiritual blessings available to all who visit there too. That gives us all the opportunity to enjoy the ultimate space trip, back to our very source, well beyond this entire universe.
The structure of space is discussed in the second canto of the vedic scripture known as Srimad Bhagavatam, and much information about the topmost planet in that dimension, Krishna Goloka, can be found in the scripture known as Sri Brahma-samhita. Both scriptures can be downloaded for free.