Close comet flyby threw Mars' magnetic field into chaos

Remember Mars' close encounter with comet C/2013 A1 last year? When it was discovered scientist thought it was on a collision course with the planet. But after more accurate calculations of its orbit this possibility was excluded. It passed Mars at around 140,000 kilometers.

At that moment the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution was orbiting Mars which gave us a possible opportunity to 'study' this fly-by up close. Though most of its equipment was turned off to protect the MAVEN' instruments, the magnetometer remained on and recorded 'magnetic chaos'.

The one-of-a-kind opportunity gave scientists an intimate view of the havoc that the comet's passing wreaked on the magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, around Mars. The effect was temporary but profound.

During closest distance between the 2, where the comets coma almost literally touched Mars, the two magnetic fields 'merged' together Mars' weak magnetic field and the magnetic field around the comet generated by solar wind.
But that wasn't all

At first, the changes were subtle. As Mars' magnetosphere, which is normally draped neatly over the planet, started to react to the comet's approach, some regions began to realign to point in different directions. With the comet's advance, these effects built in intensity, almost making the planet's magnetic field flap like a curtain in the wind. By the time of closest approach – when the plasma from the comet was densest – Mars' magnetic field was in complete chaos. Even hours after the comet's departure, some disruption continued to be measured.

phys.org...

Although Mars has a very weak magnetic field, I believe such a close encounter wouldn't do Earth any good.
Is there a possibility geomagnetic reversals in the past was triggered by close encounters with comets?

Holy snip!

You mean to tell me the basis for the cataclysm of the old Hanna Barberra cartoon "Thundarr the Barbarian" turns out to be a real possibility?



Okay so it says runaway planet instead of comet, but it looks like a comet...

Seriously, though, food for thought. Thanks.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

I would argue that anything is possible concerning the Earth's magnetic field, because just like our climate system, we have a pretty poor understand of what drives it and causes it to change.

It would be interesting to see how a close-call with a large enough asteroid or comet did affect it, though, because on the surface, it seems like a plausible consideration.

a reply to: the owlbear

Sighhhh...and yet again another memory to remind me of my long lost youth....thanks...

a reply to: chrismarco

Think about the implications...
Thundarr's Earth could possibly occur with the science discovered by MAVEN.
Things like this is why the Universe is so amazing.

a reply to: the owlbear

Ariel! Ookla! Ride!

If the world ends and ushers in a new era where I get to be a sorceress who wears a unitard and rides a horse, I am all for this new interpretation of the coming Apocalypse.

Seriously, it makes all those unannounced close calls a little creepier.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Actually our magnetosphere is, unlike Mars', generated by the internal dynamo of our planet's core. This is why our magnetosphere is way stronger than that of Mars.

Mars' magnetosphere is caused by its electrical conductivity, which explains why it is so easily influenced by external fields.

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: SlapMonkey

Actually our magnetosphere is, unlike Mars', generated by the internal dynamo of our planet's core. This is why our magnetosphere is way stronger than that of Mars.

Mars' magnetosphere is caused by its electrical conductivity, which explains why it is so easily influenced by external fields.

Damn it, ninja'd! Absolutely.

a reply to: swanne

Poo! You're no fun. At least give me some 15 or 20 minutes to enjoy my Ariel Apocalypse fantasy before you come in here and shoot it down with reality.

a reply to: ketsuko

Hehe sorry.

Allow me to reestablish an Apocalypse moment:

Curiosity proves that, once in a while, chuncks of Mars fall on Earth

Enjoy

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: swanne

Poo! You're no fun. At least give me some 15 or 20 minutes to enjoy my Ariel Apocalypse fantasy before you come in here and shoot it down with reality.

I was writing the same post. Except I had furs, a sun sword , and a he-man haircut...
Swanne is still fun, though. And a repository of things almost arcane but understandable about the Universe.

a reply to: swanne

We also have our bio energy contained in all life that adds strength to the magnetosphere... the more we create a worm hole through space with it the stronger the exchange of our energy with it will be. Venus is a bad idea since its atmosphere carries through the same worm hole we made to it. space can tear these are wormhole events hard to see through the dark matter that bends light around it... imagine the dark matter as a dark pond and the matter materials tossed in it waves as different weights pass through it... if we grab solar wind that is dark energy that has cut a swath through it? who needs warp fields etc except to create a bubble for shielding?

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Magnetism does not create a wormhole. Electromagnetism and gravity are two different forces. This is why your compass needle points at the magnetic poles and not at the center of the Earth or at the Moon.

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: SlapMonkey

Actually our magnetosphere is, unlike Mars', generated by the internal dynamo of our planet's core. This is why our magnetosphere is way stronger than that of Mars.

Mars' magnetosphere is caused by its electrical conductivity, which explains why it is so easily influenced by external fields.

Yes indeed, it was also predicted there would be a disturbance in the field at such a close encounter with Mars, though the article doesn't say to what extend the field or atmosphere suffered from this. What amount of gas escaped the planet compared to a solar storm?
Even if our planet's magnetosphere and that from Mars are generated in different ways it says little on how it will be affected, strength doesn't say everything. One of the theories/hypothesis of a geomagnetic reversal is an impact event.
So is it really that crazy to count a 'close encounter' as possible hypothesis? Though I believe this would be only one of many variables to this theory if this was true. Or is it something to ignore completely?
Just an idea i had while reading the article.

a reply to: swanne

no of course not but our cuting through space which is actually a plasma is being cut and sliced through... close your eyes do you see the lids or darkness? what about the inner cosmos contained in it that reflects the same vicera off the optic nerve as floaters embedded drift through it? some things like metal shards embed into it and cut a swath for the vicera to flow behind it. aside from the darkness... there are tiny points of light. look closer youll notice they have hues... and rub them and flashes of light from heat generated as the energy swaps energy.

space is the same way. we live on matter consuming it on a microcosim of the macrocosim of size. micro to us is the biology of life living and feeding on matter inside of us... when just a small unseen effect occuring within at all times aware of us driving their universe? the universe aware of us small life forms thinking we are driving it and the only sort when there are 1000s of animals or life forms on one planet?

curious the arrogance when few bother to look and see the cosmological constant within. harder due to attachment to concepts but... it just simply is. the less one discriminates life from matter the more unified we become...

so rockets... etc are doing the same thing as causing blood to flow from a wound... just because we see space as black with tiny specks? doesnt mean light cannot one day open a lid revealing light where one though it only darkness. the ancient natives of the US that migrated north call the opening the great white spirit... one simply has to lay on ones back at night and unfocus like looking at those 3D images that are layered that were so popular in the early 90s. then darkness turns to light. right before ones own eyes...

originally posted by: intergalactic fire
One of the theories/hypothesis of a geomagnetic reversal is an impact event.
So is it really that crazy to count a 'close encounter' as possible hypothesis?

Impact event caused by geomagnetic reversal? Quite unlikely if you ask me. Impact events are decided by the orbit of the bodies of the Solar System. If the orbit of a comet crosses that of a planet, you have an impact event. The magnetic field hardly deflect or slow down the entry of an asteroid or comet - if anything, the magnetic field could actually (in theory) attract asteroids with iron in them, though by an amount too small to be of any effect in practice.

a reply to: swanne

Did I say that??
I meant impact events can cause geomagnetic reversal, not caused by.

originally posted by: BigBrotherDarkness
a reply to: swanne

We also have our bio energy contained in all life that adds strength to the magnetosphere... the more we create a worm hole through space with it the stronger the exchange of our energy with it will be. Venus is a bad idea since its atmosphere carries through the same worm hole we made to it. space can tear these are wormhole events hard to see through the dark matter that bends light around it... imagine the dark matter as a dark pond and the matter materials tossed in it waves as different weights pass through it... if we grab solar wind that is dark energy that has cut a swath through it? who needs warp fields etc except to create a bubble for shielding?

I think that I speak for the thread when I say: whatthehell????

Just found some images taken from Opportunity and CRISM



photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...
www.jpl.nasa.gov...

What was the comet made of? load stone!!!
to do that to Mars.
and when will it be back?

why dose Thundarr the Barbarian have a Light Saber???
even goes woow! woow!