Widdekind Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 Our sun exhibits periodic field reversals (~10 years). Our earth exhibits periodic field reversals (~105 years). Our sun reverses field, at "solar maximum", when their are the maximum number of local field anomalies, called "sun spots". And, our earth, long-over-due for "scheduled" field reversal, is starting to show localized, anomalous, field-reversed regions, e.g., South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). QUESTION: Could you call the SAA an "earth spot"? To wit, are "earth spots" and "sun spots" similar, if different-size-scaled, manifestations, of the same underlying Magnetic Dynamo field-reversal process ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrödinger's hat Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 Our sun exhibits periodic field reversals (~10 years). Our earth exhibits periodic field reversals (~105 years). Our sun reverses field, at "solar maximum", when their are the maximum number of local field anomalies, called "sun spots". And, our earth, long-over-due for "scheduled" field reversal, is starting to show localized, anomalous, field-reversed regions, e.g., South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). QUESTION: Could you call the SAA an "earth spot"? To wit, are "earth spots" and "sun spots" similar, if different-size-scaled, manifestations, of the same underlying Magnetic Dynamo field-reversal process ?? I suppose there might be some similarities, conductive fluid vs plasma, but generally plasmas do a lot of weird stuff that you don't tend to see elsewhere, so I would hesitate before assuming they're going to be too much alike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widdekind Posted September 25, 2011 Author Share Posted September 25, 2011 Degeneracy is common in stars, sub-stars ('Brown Dwarfs'), and super-planets ('Gas Giants'). And, even at standard terrestrial temperatures & pressures, the outer 'conduction' electrons, in solid metals, are considered to be Degenerate. What, then, happens, in the molten iron cores, of 'super-earth' sized rocky planets, [math]m \leq 10 M_{\oplus}[/math] ? As you squeeze iron atoms together, first the outer 'valence' electrons will "blur" into "bands"; but, as you squeeze them further, progressively more & more, deeper & deeper level'ed, electrons will also become "band blurred". Is the iron in the core of the earth, in an "ultra-conductive" Degenerate state, e.g., hypothetical hydrogen super-conductor in the core of Jupiter ? Naively, according to the H.U.P., if electrons normally confined, in atomic isolation, to orbitals of isolated size-scale [math]\Delta x[/math], are compressed due to pressure, down to a size-scale of [math]\Delta x' < \Delta x[/math], then would not the "Degeneracy partial pressure", of that "blurring band" of electrons, be related to that band's Fermi Energy, [math]E_F \approx \frac{\hbar^2}{2 m_e \Delta x'^2} - \frac{\hbar^2}{2 m_e \Delta x^2} = E_0 \left( \left[ \frac{\Delta x}{\Delta x'}\right]^2 -1 \right) [/math] ? If so, then, as P increases, more & more orbitals-cum-bands provide more & more Degeneracy-P support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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