The results are in: Science says the Solar System's magnetic heliosphere looks like a deflated croissant Not only does the good ol’ Sun provide us with light and warmth, its solar wind casts around the planetary system a protective magnetic bubble that’s probably shaped like a... deflated croissant. You’d probably get away with describing it looking like a slightly misshapen spleen or a stomach if you're not into baked goods …
For a planet to be inside a heliosphere it needs to be near (or preferably in orbit around) a star. So orphan planets are out of luck, but ALL of the exoplanets that we've found so far qualify.
Planets without a (or with a weak) magnetic field will slowly have their atmosphere stripped by the solar wind. So planets without a significant magnetic field either end up with little to no atmosphere (e.g. Mars) or have a deep, thick, boiling, crushing atmosphere (e.g. Venus) that will take billions of years to strip away.
So if you look for an atmosphere that's thick enough, but not too thick, and is gonna be around long enough for life to evolve then the heliosphere and magnetic field can pretty much be assumed.
I am of course discounting extremophiles, the likes of which we might just find living on Mars or in the clouds of Venus. But that's because we've not been able to find them on Mars or Venus, which are both in our own backyard. If there are extremophiles living on an exoplanet we have zero chance of finding them from here with our present (or near future) technology.
I assume you have already observed reverse time effects with magnetism?
You should be able to initiate a magnetic field whose effects appears to propagate backwards in time. In a similar way to anti-particles appear to be in motion going backwards in time.
Of course they're not, its a net oscillation you're observing not the particle. But if magnetic is another oscillatory motion with a phase and counter phase relative to universe resonance (actually relative to the local detector), then it can be ahead or behind the resonance oscillation and the net effect will appear to move forward or backward in time.
i.e. I'm pushing you towards the "magnetism as motion" conclusion. So you understand that heat is motion and that the magnetic field is a component of the heat motion. That chaotic heat motion is complex not chaotic.
Is, are they made with butter or margarine?
If the latter, it's not a croissant, ask any Frenchman.
I am guessing, since the observations so far have not been the result of a dedicated craft/study that the shape derived from the computer simulation is likely to change as more and better data becomes available.
Or is the irregular shape due to the current configuration of the planets?
"It might be due to the butter melting."
Specifically, lamination
"Or is the irregular shape due to the current configuration of the planets?"
The exact reasons for the shape are likely to be one of the big areas of continuing study. However, it's unlikely the planets have much influence on it at all. Planets are seriously tiny compared to the scale we're looking at. Note the article says the nearest edge is around 10 billion miles away - Pluto never gets more than about 4 billion miles from the Sun. The structure here will be almost entirely due to the interaction of the solar wind with the interstellar medium, which is in turn due partly to the Sun's activity, partly due to the solar system's motion through the medium, and partly due to whatever stuff might be going on within the medium due to external effects (matter flow from other stars, shocks from supernovae, and so on).
Um, I think the Sun's job is fuse hydrogen and stave off gravitational collapse for as long as possible. The fact that that generates a ginormous magnetic field around a heliosphere is just a side-effect that happens to be beneficial to us.
That being said, I have now learned that the heliosphere has a magnetic shell around it. So we have the heliospheric magnetic shell protecting us, plus our own Earth-bound magnetosphere, and yet we still are capable of measuring cosmic rays.
Does that mean that there are "weak" cosmic rays that are stopped or deflected by the heliomagnetosphere ?
I don't think the Voyager probes not being able to stop is the problem. After all, there's loads of room out there, and they're not going all that fast (in the grand scheme of things). So they could just shout.
The problem is that we vastly under-equipped them. With only RTGs that produce a few hundred Watts, they simply don't have the power to boil a kettle and make everybody a nice cup of tea.
I'm sure that Star Trek the Motion Picture would have gone utterly differently if the Federation had simply made VGer a nice cuppa.
Although none of that Earl Grey filth that Picard drinks. Proper builders only.
Disclaimer: I rather like Earl Grey. But it's for when you're reading a nice book, after dinner, on a quiet evening. When you need a cup of tea, that's a different blend. Sainsbury's Red Label for me (loose tea made in a pot), others differ.
My friends* got me some rather nice 'afternoon' tea (loose leaf) from a trip to Arundel castle recently. There are blends other than Earl Grey and Sainsbury's Red Label.
*(Yes, even I have friends, I don't have to spend *all* my time on this site to engage in social intercourse.)
Eclectic Man,
I've been on a bit of a tea binge in the last couple of years. Trying all sorts of stuff. I've decided I like Lady Grey more than Early Grey, the perfect cuppa for an afternoon tea is Darjeeling and you can get some very interesting black teas (mostly breakfast tea blends) with bits of dried fruit in, that make a really refreshing cuppa for a change. Sainsbury's and Twinings do some wonderful fruit teas, so long as you leave the bag in for 15 minutes and drink them just before they start going cold. Perfect to make (or have the teasmade make) then shave and jump in the shower and have something nice to drink as you dry off and dress.
Smoked tea is interesting, but not for me. Green is nice with Chinese food, but jasmine is better. And the guys at work bought me a glass pot and some vacuum packed jasmine flowering tea - that also looks quite fun as it unfolds, and tastes lovely.
But after all this experiment, and now having about 15 different teas on the shelf above the teapot, the one I turn to when I get home from work, or need a bit of a sit down, is still Sainsbury's Red Label. It's not much different to any other breakfast tea blend, but it's what I grew up with and it's still really nice now I take my tea black no sugar.
Not Spartacus,
"Perfect to make (or have the teasmade make) then shave and jump in the shower and have something nice to drink as you dry off and dress."
Interesting, I make tea before I shower, and shave immediately after my shower. I am using the same 'disposable' Bic razor for over a month now.
I have my breakfast tea (black, no sugar) with a handful of mixed nuts, although were I to venture out, I might go for a coffee and a croissant at a local cafe (assuming any are still open).
The only soap I remember from childhood was in bars. Only dead posh places had liquid soap dispensers. The bars often seemed grubbier than my hands, that I was washing. Rich buggers had brown Imperial Leather bars, we had Sainsbury's own brand.
I remember Izal medicated toilet "paper" at school though.
When I worked at Martlesham for BT all the bogs had Izal in apart from the ones in the Admin block for HR to polish their arses, There were a couple of thousand people working there and once I popped in to their loos from the bloody magnificent library they had there I spread my cheeks and then the word around and rather than downgrade to stop the queues that formed they upgraded the loo roll for the rest of us.
One of my more successful sit-ins.
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