Starship Asterisk*

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:53 pm

neufer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:26 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 2:15 pm
Field lines can't be truly open.

• If you have enough GUTs they can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole#Dirac's_quantization wrote:
<<One of the defining advances in quantum theory was Paul Dirac's work on developing a relativistic quantum electromagnetism. Before his formulation, the presence of electric charge was simply "inserted" into the equations of quantum mechanics (QM), but in 1931 Dirac showed that a discrete charge naturally "falls out" of QM. That is to say, we can maintain the form of Maxwell's equations and still have magnetic charges. Quantum mechanics dictates that angular momentum is quantized in units of ħ, so therefore the product q_eq_m must also be quantized. This means that if even a single magnetic monopole existed in the universe, and the form of Maxwell's equations is valid, all electric charges would then be quantized. GUTs [grand unified theories] lead to compact U(1) gauge groups, so they explain charge quantization in a way that seems logically independent from magnetic monopoles. However, the explanation is essentially the same, because in any GUT that breaks down into a U(1) gauge group at long distances, there are magnetic monopoles.>>

Yup. I'm not holding my breath for monopoles, though.

neufer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:26 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 2:15 pm

maumau wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 6:17 am
Are the open lines actually open, or do they just continue out of the field of view of the illustration?

Field lines can't be truly open.

• If you have enough GUTs they can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole#Dirac's_quantization wrote:
<<One of the defining advances in quantum theory was Paul Dirac's work on developing a relativistic quantum electromagnetism. Before his formulation, the presence of electric charge was simply "inserted" into the equations of quantum mechanics (QM), but in 1931 Dirac showed that a discrete charge naturally "falls out" of QM. That is to say, we can maintain the form of Maxwell's equations and still have magnetic charges.

Quantum mechanics dictates that angular momentum is quantized in units of ħ, so therefore the product q_eq_m must also be quantized. This means that if even a single magnetic monopole existed in the universe, and the form of Maxwell's equations is valid, all electric charges would then be quantized.

GUTs [grand unified theories] lead to compact U(1) gauge groups, so they explain charge quantization in a way that seems logically independent from magnetic monopoles. However, the explanation is essentially the same, because in any GUT that breaks down into a U(1) gauge group at long distances, there are magnetic monopoles.>>

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 2:15 pm

maumau wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 6:17 am
Are the open lines actually open, or do they just continue out of the field of view of the illustration?

Field lines can't be truly open.

• If you have enough GUTs they can:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole#Dirac's_quantization wrote:
<<One of the defining advances in quantum theory was Paul Dirac's work on developing a relativistic quantum electromagnetism. Before his formulation, the presence of electric charge was simply "inserted" into the equations of quantum mechanics (QM), but in 1931 Dirac showed that a discrete charge naturally "falls out" of QM. That is to say, we can maintain the form of Maxwell's equations and still have magnetic charges.

Quantum mechanics dictates that angular momentum is quantized in units of ħ, so therefore the product q_eq_m must also be quantized. This means that if even a single magnetic monopole existed in the universe, and the form of Maxwell's equations is valid, all electric charges would then be quantized.

GUTs [grand unified theories] lead to compact U(1) gauge groups, so they explain charge quantization in a way that seems logically independent from magnetic monopoles. However, the explanation is essentially the same, because in any GUT that breaks down into a U(1) gauge group at long distances, there are magnetic monopoles.>>

maumau wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 6:17 am Are the open lines actually open, or do they just continue out of the field of view of the illustration?

maumau wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 6:17 am
Are the open lines actually open, or do they just continue out of the field of view of the illustration?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter wrote:

An artist's concept of a magnetosphere, where plasmasphere (7) refers to the plasma torus and sheet

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<<At the opposite side of [Jupiter], the solar wind stretches Jupiter's magnetic field lines into a long, trailing magnetotail, which sometimes extends well beyond the orbit of Saturn. The structure of Jupiter's magnetotail is similar to Earth's. It consists of two lobes (blue areas in the figure), with the magnetic field in the southern lobe pointing toward Jupiter, and that in the northern lobe pointing away from it. The lobes are separated by a thin layer of plasma called the tail current sheet (orange layer in the middle).>>

MarkBour wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2020 5:16 pm
So, this was the first I learned of the idea that Earth has a similar anomaly, and that this anomaly is a serious issue for operations in low Earth orbit. Kind of a "Bermuda Triangle" of nearby space. (It was possibly a cause factor in the destruction of the Japanese Hitomi satellite observatory.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Atlantic_Anomaly wrote:

The South Atlantic Anomaly at an altitude of approximately 560 kilometers

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<<The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is an area where the Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth's surface, dipping down to an altitude of 200 kilometres. This leads to an increased flux of energetic particles in this region and exposes orbiting satellites to higher-than-usual levels of radiation.

The effect is caused by the non-concentricity of the Earth and its magnetic dipole. The SAA is the near-Earth region where the Earth's magnetic field is weakest relative to an idealized Earth-centered dipole field.

The South Atlantic Anomaly is of great significance to astronomical satellites and other spacecraft that orbit the Earth at several hundred kilometers altitude; these orbits take satellites through the anomaly periodically, exposing them to several minutes of strong radiation, caused by the trapped protons in the inner Van Allen belt. The International Space Station, orbiting with an inclination of 51.6°, requires extra shielding to deal with this problem. The Hubble Space Telescope does not take observations while passing through the SAA. Astronauts are also affected by this region, which is said to be the cause of peculiar "shooting stars" (phosphenes) seen in the visual field of astronauts, an effect termed the cosmic ray visual phenomena. Passing through the South Atlantic Anomaly is thought to be the reason for the failures of the Globalstar network's satellites in 2007.

The PAMELA experiment, while passing through the SAA, detected antiproton levels that were orders of magnitude higher than expected. This suggests the Van Allen belt confines antiparticles produced by the interaction of the Earth's upper atmosphere with cosmic rays.

NASA has reported that modern laptops have crashed when Space Shuttle flights passed through the anomaly. In October 2012, the SpaceX CRS-1 Dragon spacecraft attached to the International Space Station experienced a transient problem as it passed through the anomaly.

The SAA is believed to have started a series of events leading to the destruction of the Hitomi, Japan's most powerful X-ray observatory. The anomaly transiently disabled a direction-finding mechanism, causing the satellite to rely solely on gyroscopes that were not working properly, after which it spun itself apart.>>

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter under the section "Internal magnetic field" ...

Jupiter's magnetic field rotates at the same speed as the region below its atmosphere, with a period of 9 h 55 m. No changes in its strength or structure had been observed since the first measurements were taken by the Pioneer spacecraft in the mid-1970s, until 2019. Analysis of observations from the Juno spacecraft show a small but measurable change from the planet's magnetic field observed during the Pioneer era. In particular, Jupiter has a region of strongly non-dipolar field, known as the "Great Blue Spot", near the equator. This may be roughly analogous to the Earth's South Atlantic Anomaly. This region shows signs of large secular variations.

Surrounding the planet are imagined lines of constant magnetic field strength.

Surrounding the planet are imagined magnetic field lines.