The Aurora – Think Spaghetti?
11 Jun 2012, 18:42 UTC
NASA/University of Iowa
Yes, spaghetti. Think of spaghetti becoming untangled when describing how the process of ‘magnetic reconnection’ works to give us the aurora. So says Jack Scudder a researcher at the University of Iowa. Scudder and colleagues have published details in the … Continue reading →
A cartoon of plasma flowing from the sun with the solar wind with magnetic field lines (spaghetti). Click for larger. Image: NASA/University of Iowa
Yes, spaghetti. Think of spaghetti becoming untangled when describing how the process of ‘magnetic reconnection’ works to give us the aurora. So says Jack Scudder a researcher at the University of Iowa. Scudder and colleagues have published details in the June 5th issue of Physical Review Letters.
The spaghetti is analogous to the magnetic field lines carried in plasma coming from the sun by way of the solar wind.
Read here to read a quite detailed description of what is going on from the University of Iowa.
