Music from the sun

A MUSICAL NOTE FROM THE MAGNETOSPHERE: High above the Arctic Circle in Lofoten, Norway, citizen scientist Rob Stammes operates a space weather monitoring station. His sensors detect ground currents, auroras, radio bursts, and disturbances in Earth's magnetic field. Yesterday, he says, "I received a musical note from the magnetosphere."

"Around 05.30 UTC on Jan. 18th, our local magnetic field began to swing back and forth in a rhythmic pattern," he says. "Electrical currents in the ground did the same thing. It was a nearly pure sine wave--like a low frequency musical note. The episode lastesd for more than 2 hours."

Stammes has received such notes before, but they are rare. "I see a pattern like this only about once a year," he says.

Space physicists call this phenomenon a "pulsation continuous" or "Pc" for short. Imagine blowing across a piece of paper, making it flutter with your breath. Solar wind does the same thing to magnetic fields. Pc waves are essentially flutters propagating down the flanks of Earth's magnetosphere excited by the breath of the sun.


Above: a magnetometer in Abisko, Sweden, recorded the same waves.

Yesterday's set of waves washed over Norway and Sweden, but almost nowhere else, according to the global INTERMAGNET network of magnetometers. It was a strictly regional phenomenon.

What happens in the sky when such a pure tone emerges from the natural background cacophony of magnetic activity? "I wish I knew," says Stammes. "I was asleep at the time." In fact, it's possible that no one knows. Tones like these are rare, and they all too often occur while skies are cloudy or daylit, blocking any peculiar auroras from view. Stammes says he plans to build an alert system to help him find out. No pun intended: Stay tuned.

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Mushrooms

Some of you know the sciwiz loves mushroom hunting.. Over the last week I’ve been collecting lichen, in search of water bears. I’m also reading “Entangled Life” by Merlin Sheldrake. The interesting connection is that mushrooms and lichen are both actually mycelium, which are the white colored threads that grow in the debris (leaf litter wood,etc.). Mushrooms are the fruit of the mycelium ( produce spores).

Lichen are symbiotic organisms that consist of 2 parts- mycelium and (algae or cyano bacteria).The mycelium provide the shelter while the photobiont produces food from CO2 water and sunlight. Cool Stuff.

Anyway here’s some wetrdness. Someone figured out a way to hook up a mushroom to control a synthesizer to produce MUSHROOM MUSIC. Be awed by the world around you! Enjoy!

Lunar Libration

Todays article comes from the pages of Galileo’s “Sidereal Messenger” (the manuscript that got him in trouble with the church). Apparently we can see more than half of the surface of the moon due to a wobble in it’s motion; we can actually observe 59% over time. Galileo was thee first to recognize this.It is a testament to the detail and depth of his data collection and analysis. Science owes a great debt to this man and his genius. Attached is a NASA video of the motion. Enjoy learning @@@ The Science Wizard,


Ruins at Kourion , Cyprus...345 AD

This image was taken by an Anthropologist who discovered these skeletons in the ruins of an earthquake that occured on July 21, 345 AD. in Cyprus. (image courtesy of Walter H. Birkby). In it is depicted a man a woman and a small child, assumed to be in their bedroom. The woman estimated to be about 19 was clutching a child of about 18 months, they were both being shielded by the man whose left arm extended over the woman and the child’s back. What do you think this says about the human condition. What would you do in a time of crisis?

@@@ the science4 wizard

Family died in earthquake

Family died in earthquake