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NASA spacecraft have determined magentic substorms cause aurora borealis

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, has been a puzzle to scientist for over 30 years. The mystery to science was how exactly the phenomenon was started in the atmosphere. According to Space.com, scientists were unsure if the aurora was started as magnetic field lines in the atmosphere reconnected or if the aurora originated closer to Earth as the result of explosive instability.

NASA used its five THEMIS spacecraft orbiting the Earth to spot the trigger for the substorms that cause the aurora to develop. The trigger was very strong energy bursts in the Earth’s magnetic field. The THEMIS probes monitored the level of energy in the Earth’s magnetic field. The probes were able to find substorms that originated in the tail of the Earth’s magnetosphere that flows away from the sun.

As energy levels in the magnetic field lines build the lines drew closer to each other until they reconnected. Once the magnetic field lines reconnected a storm was set off in the magnetosphere leading to the aurora borealis.

Space scientist Vassilis Angelopoulos from the University of California in L.A. told Space.com, “We discovered what sparks the magnificent light show of the aurora. Our data show clearly and for the first time that magnetic reconnection is the trigger.”

According to the scientists, the better they can understand the storms that spark the aurora, the better they will be able to prepare for or predict space weather events that can interfere with communications and endanger any astronauts in orbit at the time.

Angelopoulos continued saying, “We need to understand this environment and eventually be able to predict when these large energy releases will happen so astronauts can go inside their spacecraft and we can turn off critical systems on satellites so they will not be damaged.”

The THEMIS spacecraft were launched in February 2007 specifically to hunt for the cause of the substorms in the magnetosphere. The mission was set to last two years. Another spacecraft called Image was to study the Earth’s magnetosphere. Image failed unexpectedly in 2006, but the mission was a success as the Image spacecraft was only slated to operate for two years.


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Gotta love science these days...
By DanoruX on 7/25/2008 4:32:17 PM , Rating: 4
"What's causing it?"

"Lets launch a probe to find out."

A little while later problem solved.

Now if only we didn't lag between the fall of the roman empire and the renaissance...




RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Darkskypoet on 7/25/2008 6:06:23 PM , Rating: 5
No kidding. Damn Christianity! Wasting our time on wars and crusades...


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By cornelius785 on 7/25/2008 8:32:31 PM , Rating: 5
I'd put the blame on the splitting up and fall of the Roman Empire than Christainity for the slow development period or this "set backwards" concept. The near complete destruction of the Library of Alexandria probably didn't help either. I don't really put the blame on Christianity, but more or less the blind people doing what they thought best for everyone else, after all they were still human.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Ringold on 7/25/2008 9:23:23 PM , Rating: 2
Right, it was within the walls of churchs that classical knowledge was retained, even if they from time to time censored some stories, etc. Some Muslim areas retained a lot for us as well.

That said, I find it interesting that once Christianity was more widespread in the Empire, they lost their will to do the things necessary to ensure their own long term survival. Almost a sort of pervasive laziness... hey! Sort of like American's not bothering with 'real' degrees, like engineering, science or more technical business degrees, and instead filling liberal arts classes. :P

But theres no authoritative single theory of what made the whole thing fall apart that I'm aware of, many factors played in.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Felofasofa on 7/25/2008 10:46:12 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Sort of like American's not bothering with 'real' degrees, like engineering, science or more technical business degrees, and instead filling liberal arts classes. :P

It's the same in Australia, humanities faculties dominate our campuses, law, art etc. 90% of the costs in these faculties is teachers wages. Science and engineering? - forget it, aint no particle colliders comming from down-under. We're not producing the PHD's in these areas either, like the rest of the world we are leaving that to China whose PHD factories are as busy as their cheap telly factories.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By oab on 7/26/2008 12:26:30 AM , Rating: 2
No, but Australia just opened a really big and expensive light thing which I forget the name of used to study crystal structure and such. I forget the name of it but it was a big deal at the time among the science press.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By sqrt1 on 7/26/2008 12:50:48 AM , Rating: 2
I believe that is probably the "Australian Synchrotron"


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By masher2 (blog) on 7/25/2008 10:48:41 PM , Rating: 2
> "Right, it was within the walls of churchs that classical knowledge was retained, "

And it remained safely locked away, unavailable to anyone for a thousand years. Society didn't see the benefits of that knowledge until the Renaissance, when the Church began to loose its iron grip on those old documents from antiquity.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Ryanman on 7/25/2008 11:34:34 PM , Rating: 4
not only that, but christian zealots were the ones who destroyed the library of Alexandria anyway. Apologists ftl.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By feraltoad on 7/26/2008 1:54:53 AM , Rating: 2
Only half true! Muslims got in on the book, I mean scroll burning too. You see, religious fundamentalist working together to destroy and retard knowledge for a sh*ttier tomorrow.

"They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous." Then they burned stuff!!! -wikipedia

That quote is funny if you replace 'the koran' with 'Arby's'.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By UzairH on 7/26/2008 5:14:23 AM , Rating: 5
You are half right about Muslims burning books. Since you got in on the debate I suggest you read up on Averroes and Avicenna. Both were superb scientists/philosophers/polymaths/theoligans of their time, and the foremost ones of that era. For example I too can quote from wikipedia:

... "He(Averroes) has been described as the founding father of secular thought in Western Europe."[2]

If you take the time to read the actual history of science, it was the Muslims who were at the vanguard for about 400 years from 800 AD to 1200 AD, while Europe was in its Dark Ages. Unfortunately this group of scientists and thinkers, the Rationalists, were in a bitter dispute with the Dogmatists, who eventually (and unfortunately) won the day. From that point on it is we the Muslims who are living our Dark Ages (witness the #^$%*@&$^ taliban phenomena).

I'd like to close by saying that to the best of my knowledge and reading of the Quran Islam itself encourages science and the spirit of inquiry. Alas, as always through the ages, men have twisted religion to suit their own desire for power over the foolish and the weak.


By Ryanman on 7/27/2008 9:03:26 PM , Rating: 2
well said.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By isorfir on 7/28/2008 9:18:53 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
Alas, as always through the ages, men have created religion to suit their own desire for power over the foolish and the weak.


Fixed it for you.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By hadifa on 7/29/2008 1:03:00 AM , Rating: 3
I don't think that is justified, at least for the Ibrahimic faiths because the founders didn't brought them forth to serve their desires.

If they made up the "religion to suit their own desires" then when did they do that? Can you provide some examples please?

There are a lot of examples to the contrary though pointing to their selflessness.

As far as the history is concerned, they believed in what they said themselves.

It's for that reason that some historians suggest they were delusional but definitely not self serving!


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By HVAC on 7/29/2008 11:55:34 AM , Rating: 2
There have always been the type of people who demand that God hit them over the head with a proverbial 2x4 in order to accept the idea that some religion does not originate with man.


By Jellodyne on 7/30/2008 2:33:36 PM , Rating: 2
Best example is a modern one, L. Ron Hubbard, anyone?

PS You won't find many people willing to argue that religeons are man made, even the most devout zealot agrees with that regarding all of them except one.


By feraltoad on 8/10/2008 1:48:13 AM , Rating: 2
Wrong. How can I be "half right about Muslims burning books" when I asserted that "Muslims burned books too"? Wait! You agree that Muslims burned books, and that makes me 100 percent right. Congratulations on being able to quote from Wikipedia too, but in this case you would be better served if you take the time to read the actual posts that people are responding to.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By AggressorPrime on 7/25/2008 9:02:58 PM , Rating: 5
Don't you know it was the crusades that brought back all the technology the Roman Empire once had to Europe? Without the Church's holy wars, we would either all be Muslim, dead, or in the dark ages. The crusades both prevented Europe from being conquered and gave Europe back her long lost technologies.

Don't go thinking war stalls progress. In fact, it does the opposite. People are more creative when they are in dire situations. For example, World War 2. This war brought America from a nobody to the supreme super power of the world, not because we were able to survive for the most part, but because we were able to maximize our working class, adding women to the work force. In addition, men and women alike formed new ways to maximize production, like the computer (WW2) and the assembly line (WW1).

And if you look back into the classical age, Rome itself did what the Church did with the crusades. Rome fought with many civilizations, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but always collecting more data and more knowledge. Combined with the will to survive, Rome was able to become the super power of its day, taking knowledge from everywhere.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By daftrok on 7/26/2008 2:27:21 PM , Rating: 3
Why would we all be dead or in the dark ages? The Middle East was a plethora of science and technology that went with the same basis: war brings about progress. After Islam was adopted Arabs began to conquer the Middle East and Northern Africa, spreading the religion of Islam in the process. During this era, knowledge was a high priority:
http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/full/20/10/1581

If the Crusades ended with the Muslims winning, then most of us would be Muslim continuing the Golden Age of science and technology. There would be no shackles of biblical misinterpretations hindering science at every step, from the ellipsoidal shape of the Earth to stem cell research.


By Gondorff on 7/29/2008 6:04:43 PM , Rating: 2
Please inform me what biblical misinterpretations are standing against stem cell research. The bible doesn't deal with such issues, and any sane Christian knows that. What is standing against stem cell research is a well thought-out set of philosophical and moral considerations--one that avoids dualistic tendencies that even its secularist opponents all too often fall into.

http://www.bioethics.gov/reports/cloningreport/app...

Read it, wrestle with it, and make up your mind. Just don't go around labeling all others as ignorant without any understanding of the arguments.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Segerstein on 7/26/2008 7:44:24 AM , Rating: 1
It wasn't Christianity , but a lot of new uncivilized people from East. But it is Islam who is to blame the most from the dark middle ages - Europe lost access to other civilizations, namely India & China. Trade routes were blocked by Muslims.

Modern era starts with the defeat of Muslim forces in Granada by Spanish Army in 1492. Modern era might end, my I add, with the victory of forces, whose ideal society is in 7th century desert Arabia.


By pmonti80 on 7/26/2008 8:37:13 AM , Rating: 2
Just in case you didn't study your history class properly the muslim where the civilized people during the Middle Age at least for a good part of it. If you care to see what they did you will find that lot of the science (in many of its fields) in those times was by the muslim.
In the Middle Age we were the morons, but as time goes on things change. So maybe in 500 years things will be reversed again, who knows.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By UzairH on 7/26/2008 9:28:39 AM , Rating: 4
Segerstein, I'm sorry but you are sounding like a total idiot with your inane statements. In case you didn't repeat what I wrote above:
... "He(Averroes) has been described as the founding father of secular thought in Western Europe."[2]

While Europe was in its Dark Ages, it was the Muslims who were carrying science and philosophy forward. The tables were reversed later, but not due to external influences but the evolution of these societies from within. Europe discarded religious dogma with the Renaissance, while in the Muslim lands dogma overcame rationality and continues to do so till this day.

Don't let your own religious dogma/beliefs/preferences/biases cloud your judgment.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By UzairH on 7/26/2008 9:35:27 AM , Rating: 2
Furthermore, it is a well established fact (go read your history books) that a lot of the work done by Muslim scientists was translated, understood, and carried forward by European scholars. Why do you think the modern English number symbols so closely match their Arabic counterparts? The Muslim scholars took the work of the earlier Greeks and expanded/added to it it hugely.

And your statement that is was somehow the Muslims who blocked knowledge and progress is laughably false. The Muslims were the ones who preserved and advanced knowledge. In fact at the world's earliest universities in Cairo and Baghdad they welcomed scholars from all over the world.

Segerstein, here's a clue: get an education


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Segerstein on 7/26/2008 8:17:03 PM , Rating: 2
UzairH: Why do you think the modern English number symbols so closely match their Arabic counterparts?

Precisely my point. The numerals 0-9 were invented at about 500AD in India. Arabs themselves call them the Hindu numbers. If the Muslims didn't block European access to India, we would get them much sooner than in 10th century.

Muslims were primarily interested in medicine. Why? Because you have a much better army if you know how to patch your soldiers after the battle. And also to prevent common diseases. So you can increase your "tax basis": either you get more Jizya (heavy taxes for non-muslims) or you get Muslims who fight for your cause.

Arabs, illiterate themselves, occupied old centers of civilization, such as Persia, Mesopotamia, Cairo. It is not fair to attribute their accomplishments to Muslim Arabs.

Read what they did to the library of Alexandria, which was the largest library of the ancient world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria

It was burnt by caliph Umar. He gave the famous answer, what to do with the books in the library: "They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous."

UzairH, get a real education, not some politically correct propaganda. It's not Christianity, but Islam who is most responsible for Europe's dark ages.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By UzairH on 7/27/2008 5:40:27 AM , Rating: 1
You gotta love half-quotes. Since you've twice quoted from the wikipedia article, let me quote that section in its entirity:
"Muslim conquest in 642
Several historians told varying accounts of a Muslim army led by Amr ibn al 'Aas sacking the city in 642 after the Byzantine army was defeated at the Battle of Heliopolis, and that the commander asked the caliph Umar what to do with the library. He gave the famous answer: "They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous." The Arabs subsequently burned the books to heat bathwater for the soldiers.[20][21] It was also said that the Library's collection was still substantial enough at this late date to provide six months' worth of fuel for the baths.[22] However, this account has been dismissed by some as a legend.[23] While the first Western account of the supposed event was in Edward Pococke's 1663 translation of History of the Dynasties, it was dismissed as a hoax or propaganda as early as 1713 by Fr. Eusèbe Renaudot. Over the centuries, numerous succeeding scholars have agreed with Fr. Renaudot's conclusion, including Alfred J. Butler, Victor Chauvin, Paul Casanova and Eugenio Griffini.[24] More recently, in 1990, noted Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis argued that the original account is not true, but that it survived over time because it was a useful myth for the great Twelfth century Muslim leader Saladin, who found it necessary to break up the Fatimid caliphate's collection of heretical Isma'ili texts in Cairo following his restoration of Sunnism to Egypt. Lewis proposes that the story of the caliph Umar's support of a library's destruction may have made Saladin's actions seem more acceptable to his people.[25]"

Moral of the story: the caliph Umar almost certainly did not order the burning of the books.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Samus on 7/28/2008 4:09:29 AM , Rating: 2
and sunday morning. don't forget christianity and its complete lack of respect to have your sunday morning spent proper.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 7/25/2008 6:42:26 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Now if only we didn't lag between the fall of the roman empire and the renaissance...

My thoughts exactly. We could be hundreds of years more advanced if we hadn't gone backwards for so long.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Fnoob on 7/25/2008 10:33:07 PM , Rating: 2
Don't you suppose mankind was already in the habit of heading backwards? Seems so comparing ancient Egypt and Rome.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By oab on 7/26/2008 12:30:57 AM , Rating: 2
That collapse of civilization in Europe entirely really sucked. Damn roman empire falling. Then the damn vikings went in and raided the place all the time forcing control into centralized fiefdoms to keep everything stable, and once that happened there was no chance of progress because the entire workforce was essentially slaves.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Hare on 7/26/2008 3:39:30 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Then the damn vikings went in and raided the place all the time
Got a link?
Btw. Teutons were not vikings.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By MamiyaOtaru on 7/26/2008 6:51:41 AM , Rating: 2
Link's necessary, 'cause everyone knows Vikings didn't raid people. Oh wait..

I'm pretty sure "Roman Empire" and "the place" in gp's post weren't meant to be the same thing.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Hare on 7/26/2008 7:34:31 AM , Rating: 2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Roman_Empire_Ma...

That's quite a large area. I seriously doubt that the vikings "raided the place all the time"...


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By TMV192 on 7/25/2008 9:02:24 PM , Rating: 3
eh there's lot of stuff that lags our potential, even recently we look at how anti-Nuclear sentiment has slowed it's development not just as a clean and efficient power source but as propulsion technology that could have sent man to Mars on a Saturn V in the 80s as Von Braun wanted


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By Fnoob on 7/25/2008 10:30:43 PM , Rating: 2
Von Braun was a hero of mine, however, his planned nuclear propulsion to Mars was just a bit insane (for a manned flight anyhow). It wasn't a nuclear powered engine, along the lines of a nuke sub or carrier. His idea was a steady sequence of actual nuclear detonations behind the craft! We'll just put a thick metal plate behind your ass and off you go mmkay? As much as I'd love to get out into space, that isn't one ride I'd sign up for as a test pilot.


By masher2 (blog) on 7/25/2008 10:46:09 PM , Rating: 2
> "his planned nuclear propulsion to Mars was just a bit insane...His idea was a steady sequence of actual nuclear detonations behind the craft! "

Actually, that idea came from Ulam, the co-inventor of the hydrogen bomb, not Von Braun. And there's nothing crazy about it..the US actually did some preliminary testing of it, under the Project Orion aegis.


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By TMV192 on 7/28/2008 7:06:24 PM , Rating: 2
yup, you're confusing Orion with Nerva


RE: Gotta love science these days...
By mezman on 7/28/2008 2:56:57 PM , Rating: 2
Too bad we can't to that for AGW...


30 Years?
By rickon66 on 7/25/2008 5:21:01 PM , Rating: 5
The title makes it sound like the northern lights just popped up 30 years ago. They have been a "mystery" for as long as mankind has been observing them.




RE: 30 Years?
By cocoman on 7/25/2008 5:45:03 PM , Rating: 2
The mistery is not the northern lights, its "if the aurora was started as magnetic field lines in the atmosphere reconnected or if the aurora originated closer to Earth as the result of explosive instability". That is the mistery.


RE: 30 Years?
By just4U on 7/26/2008 12:42:29 PM , Rating: 2
All I know is the norther lights scared the hell out of me as a kid. Others would be out yelling at them causing them to move and I'd be going ...

Nooooooooooo...

I'd always assumed they were a reflections that bounced off ice or something (maybe caused by moonlight) I didn't know it was a mystery.


RE: 30 Years?
By StevoLincolnite on 7/27/2008 1:12:20 AM , Rating: 2
I always thought they were pretty, mind you I have never seen the Northern Lights in person.


News?
By soloman02 on 7/25/2008 7:05:11 PM , Rating: 2
How is this news? We were told of the cause of the aurora borealis several months ago. It may have even been on this site. This does not seem newsworthy since it was already reported on months ago.




RE: News?
By TennesseeTony on 7/25/2008 7:49:54 PM , Rating: 3
Newsworthy? This is a personal blog, not a news outlet.

********************

Try to keep up with the times Shane. :)


RE: News?
By soloman02 on 7/25/2008 11:10:48 PM , Rating: 2
Actually, this article is currently (as of this posting) in the news section.

And who is Shane?


RE: News?
By SiliconAddict on 7/26/2008 2:08:32 AM , Rating: 2
Hmm well I didn't know about it and I'm certain many others didn't so please do us all a favor and go to CNN to get your news and leave this place. Please. sick of idiots posting that OMG! This was reported months ago. And that makes it less worth of blogging how?


magentic?
By MRsnufalufagus on 7/25/2008 6:21:42 PM , Rating: 2
so it's magnetic and magentic? the picture does have a magenta hue to it, but i didn't know magentic was a word. learn something new every day.




RE: magentic?
By kake on 7/26/2008 12:18:54 PM , Rating: 2
magentic = purple magic. Discworldish I'm assuming . . .


By bubba551 on 7/27/2008 1:13:12 PM , Rating: 2
I guess this is technically true since the northern lights references in 13th century Norse Mythology are over 30 years old.




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