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One of the big questions in solar physics is why the sun's activity follows a regular cycle of 11 years. Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), an independent German research institute, now present new findings, indicating that the tidal forces of Venus, Earth and Jupiter influence the solar magnetic field, thus governing the solar cycle.
[...] To accomplish this result, the scientists systematically compared historical observations of solar activity from the last thousand years with planetary constellations, statistically proving that the two phenomena are linked. "There is an astonishingly high level of concordance: what we see is complete parallelism with the planets over the course of 90 cycles," said Frank Stefani, lead author of the study. "Everything points to a clocked process."
[...] Besides influencing the 11-year cycle, planetary tidal forces may also have other effects on the sun. For example, it is also conceivable that they change the stratification of the plasma in the transition region between the interior radiative zone and the outer convection zone of the sun (the tachocline) in such a way that the magnetic flux can be conducted more easily. Under those conditions, the magnitude of activity cycles could also be changed, as was once the case with the Maunder Minimum, when there was a strong decline in solar activity for a longer phase.
https://phys.org/news/2019-05-corroborates-planetary-tidal-solar.html
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday August 25 2019, @03:37AM (2 children)
Yes, it's pretty cool.
Okay, so IIRC, gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the objects. But magnetic force is inversely proportional to the 4th power. So at distance X, 2 planets have have Y gravitational force, but at 2X, the force is 1/4 Y.
With magnets, at distance 2X, you get 1/16 the force, and at 3X, you'd get 1/81 the force. (spooky music playing)
That's why you can have a super (neodymium alloy) magnet that you can't remove from some solid piece of steel, but 1" (or 2.54 cm) away and there's barely any force.
But look at a size-proportionate model of our solar system, and to think that things farther than Pluto are held in orbit largely by the sun's gravity is mind-numbing.
Again, IIRC, there's theory that earth's magnetic field is being generated by the iron inner core moving around in the molten outer core, and that the magnetic field deflects the sun's solar wind, keeping our atmosphere intact. There's also theory that Mars used to have this core and magnetic field that deflected the sun's solar wind, but when Mars cooled the magnetic field mostly died and the solar wind blew Mars' atmosphere away. If all that's true, you'd have to re-heat Mars' core, and I'm good with thermodynamics but I'm not going to calculate that for free!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 26 2019, @06:47PM (1 child)
Magnetic force depends upon the geometry of the magnetic source. It is inverse-squared for a monopole. It is more like 1/r^3 for a dipole and 1/r for a long current-carrying wire. It might be 1/r^4 for an oscillating magnetic field though.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday August 27 2019, @04:52AM
Thanks. I studied it in college, and had to do all the complex derivations and calculus, but have never used it since. I did look it up before posting, but whew, found a lot of theory and very complicated math. For some reason 1/r^4 has stuck in my mind. Magnetism seems like by far the most complex and non-intuitive thing I've ever studied.