Plasmas torn apart: Physicists make discovery that hints at origin of phenomena like solar flares

this is cool...

People have not observed anything like this before," Bellan says.

i have read many theories about magnetic reconnection and field lines snapping ect,
this picture looks like how i imagine it would look

These chunks of plasma, called coronal mass ejections, can also snap Earth's magnetic field lines, causing charged particles to speed toward Earth's magnetic poles; this, in turn, sets off the shimmering light shows we know as the northern and southern lights.

Even though the process of field lines breaking and merging with other lines—called magnetic reconnection—has such significant effects, a detailed picture of what precisely is going on has long eluded scientists, says Paul Bellan, professor of applied physics in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Now, using high-speed cameras to look at jets of plasma in the lab, Bellan and graduate student Auna Moser have discovered a surprising phenomenon that provides clues to just how magnetic reconnection occurs. They describe their results in a paper published in the February 16 issue of the journal Nature.

source

really cool video of a "plasma KINK" in a lab

this topic of magnetic reconnetion has provided much debate on ats and it is interesting to "see" the experiment,
and what it does. this may provide for a better understanding of the sun and sun related events

xploder

reply to post by XPLodER


www.physorg.com...

www.theregister.co.uk...

Satellites Catch Earth Reconfiguring Its Magnetic Field

Earth's writhing magnetic field could aid fusion research Null points for ESA's Cluster

Does anyone find that the date of the findings interesting??

www.physorg.com...
=15 September 2001....... just 4 days after 911.

What caused the null point in the first place? I have my theories.

Peace

Originally posted by XPLodER

i have read many theories about magnetic reconnection and field lines snapping ect,
this picture looks like how i imagine it would look

But for the fact there is no such MATERIAL object as a 'field line,' I'd have to agree. This is largely what I'd thought the plasma process might look like.

This research appears to bring us full circle back to Hannes Alfvén's "exploding circuits" and/or "exploding double layers."

plasmafrontier.blogspot.com...

Can we please dispense with the poor metaphysics of 'field line reconnection' and call it what it is? An exploding electric circuit in plasma... About time someone hammered the last nail into 'reconnection.'

Field lines do not EXIST. They are a draftsman's artifice on paper denoting surfaces of 'equal properties,' generally magnetic field strength and direction. That is the direction and magnitude of a force felt by a particle dropped at a given point in the continuous vector field.

Electric currents are the sole source of magnetic fields in the universe. Yes, even at the atomic / "permanent magnet" level.

plasmafrontier.blogspot.com...

So, it seems what Bellan & Moser have 'discovered' was already suggested by Hannes Alfvén c. 1970's / 1980's. That is to say that electric circuit are explosive in that when you try to disrupt them, they can explode at the point of the break with the inductive energy of the circuit being released at the point of the break.

It sounds like that's exactly what Bellan / Moser have discovered and recounted in terms of so-called 'reconnection.'

1) Current is established.
2) Magnetic field self-interacts with the current causing a kink instability.
3) Rayleigh-Taylor instability develops on a much smaller scale at some point in the circuit.
4) In the region where R-T instability develops, the current 'pinches' and 'necks off' (much like the 'sausage instability').
5) Circuit is disrupted.
6) Impulsive event. They identify it as a 'reconnection' event.' Alfvén would describe it as an exploding circuit. That is an electrical explosion (an impulsive event, itself). Large quantities of energy are released at the point of the circuit rupture.

As the underlying current system changes, the associated magnetic field lines MUST be redrawn. Hence the changes in the magnetic 'field lines' / magnetic field topology at the time of the impulsive event ('reconnection' / circuit explosion).

'Field lines' DO NOTHING. Circuits exist. Current drive magnetic field (a force felt between currents). Magnetic field lines merely denote properties of that field and change only as the magnetic fields change, which themselves only change as the underlying currents change. The 'field line' changes are merely an after-effect. 'Reconnection confuses cause & effect.

We don't say that 'elevation line' fluctuations during an earthquake cause the earthquake by releasing 'tectonic energy.' Any geologist who said that would probably get laughed out of geology college. Same goes for isobars on weather maps and storms...

Let's stop reversing cause and effect and simply recognize that these are impulsive electric events.

The same should be applied to solar flares as well, since 'MR' (no, not mental retardation! 'magnetic reconnection'...) has been implicated there too...

And, gosh, Hannes Alfvén already dealt with that electrically too!

www.electric-cosmos.org...
www.electric-cosmos.org...

Electrical engineer Don Scott summarizes it nicely:
"Energy, Wm, stored in any magnetic field, is given by the expression Wm = 1/2 Li ^2. If the current, i, is interrupted, the field collapses and its energy must be delivered somewhere. The magnetic field of the Sun sometimes, and in some places on its surface, forms an "omega" shaped loop. This loop extends out through the double sheath layer (DL) of the chromosphere. One of the primary properties of Birkeland currents is that they generally follow magnetic field lines. A strong looping current will produce a secondary toroidal magnetic field that will surround and try to expand the loop. If the current following the loop becomes too strong, the DL will be destroyed. This interrupts the current (like opening a switch in an inductive circuit) and the energy stored in the primary magnetic field is explosively released into space."

"...when magnetic fields collapse due to the interruption of the currents that produce them, they do not "break" or "merge" and "recombine" as some uninformed astronomers have claimed ... The field simply collapses (very quickly!). On the Sun this collapse releases a tremendous amount of energy, and matter is thrown out away from the surface - as with any explosively rapid reaction."

Time to play catch up, astronomers, astrophysicists, et al. The revelations of the 1980's are calling your name!

~MG

Originally posted by AriesJedi
Does anyone find that the date of the findings interesting??

www.physorg.com...
=15 September 2001....... just 4 days after 911.

What caused the null point in the first place? I have my theories.

Peace

Uhh, what story are YOU looking at?? The OP's story was from Feb 15 2012 & has nothing to do with 9/11...

www.physorg.com...

The one YOU posted is from July 18, 2006. Also nothing to do with 9/11...

www.physorg.com...

Not sure why you're bringing up 9/11 at all... Let's not grasp at straws here.

Best,
~MG

Originally posted by AriesJedi
What caused the null point in the first place? I have my theories.

Peace

Leaving aside 9/11 nonsense, hopefully these answer your above question to some degree or other:

(Magnetic Reconnection & the Big Picture)
www.thunderbolts.info...

(Real Properties of Electromagnetic Fields and Plasma in the Cosmos)
www.electric-cosmos.org...
Seems there's an answer for just about everything today...

~MG

Some bonus reading:

(Electric Currents Key to Magnetic Phenomena)
www.electric-cosmos.org...

(The Electronic Sun; AKA, the Solar "Transistor Effect" Analogy)
www.electric-cosmos.org...

edit on 21-2-2012 by mgmirkin because: (no reason given)

edit on 21-2-2012 by mgmirkin because: (no reason given)

edit on 21-2-2012 by mgmirkin because: (no reason given)

The experiment requires 200 million watts of power to produce jets that are a scorching 20,000 degrees Kelvin and carry a current of 100,000 amps.

But after months of additional experiments, they determined that the kink instability actually spawns a completely different kind of phenomenon, called a Rayleigh-Taylor instability.

that is a colossal use of power consumed so quickly that they had to use cameras that take pictures in a millionth of a second. doing tests for months.

not really worth it this time around, but that's science for you, you never know what you're going to get.