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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE THE INTERCONNECTED SUN lasma is often described as the Pew state of matter. Since it makes up more than 99 per cent of the Universe, it should be reckoned to be the first state. The Sun is an example of plasma and its normal behaviour. Although the general premise is probably thousands of years old— that Earth is somehow an electrical entity—it has only been in the last 100 years that scientists have given serious credence to the possibility that we could be living in a dynamic solar system where electricity plays an important role. researchers to test how the decay luctuations correlated with the Sun's own rotation. They found that the decay rates recurred every 33 days, which didn't quite fit with the Sun's nown surface rotation length of 28 days. But the neutrinos wouldn't be coming from the surface: they would be coming from deep inside the core. Unlikely as it might seem, the Sun's core must be rotating a little slower han its surface, apparently once every 33 days. All of this relies on some unlikely assumptions and the occasional bold intuitive leap, but the model they propose seems to hang together. And yet one mystery remains: how are the neutrinos managing to interact with the radioactive particles in this way? It doesn't fit with the nown behaviour of neutrinos, and it opens up the very real possibility at some previously unknown subatomic particle is actually behind his bizarre effect. As Peter Sturrock explains: "It's an effect that no one yet understands. Theorists are starting to say, ‘What's going on?’ But that's what the evidence points to. It's a challenge for the physicists and a challenge for e solar people, too. [If it's not neutrinos,] it would have to be something we don't know about, an unknown particle that is also emitted by the Sun and has this effect, and that would be even more remarkable.” If these new discoveries hold up, then we've discovered that the Sun changes rates of radioactive decay, that we can predict solar flares before they happen, that the Sun's core rotates slower than its surface, and that maybe even an entirely unknown particle exists and is affecting our world in a tangible way. Not a bad set of results for what was supposed to be a simple search for some random numbers. (Source: Symmetry Breaking, Attp://tinyurl.com/2bgzdcs, via Alasdair Wilkins, http://tinyurl.com/242w97f) The plasma streams circle the Earth in opposite directions along the equator, carrying positive and negative electric charges. Since plasma is a charged substance, if it is in motion it will generate an electric current. An electric current flowing through plasma creates a tube-like magnetic sheath that "squeezes" the current to form one or more filaments. If enough current passes through the circuit, the plasma current filaments will glow, sometimes creating one or more “double layers" of charge separation along the current axis. even more Plasma bands in the ionosphere emitting ultraviolet light. (Source: NASA/University of California, Berkeley) Double layers form when a current flows in plasma, and positive and negative charges build up in adjacent regions along the current flow. A powerful electric field appears between the two regions, which accelerates charged particles. Plasma physicist Hannes Alfvén considered double layers an important cosmic circuit element. oo billions of kilometres, influencing he planets in their motions as well as in how they interact with each other.In September 2002, a major premise of the Electric Universe heory was confirmed. Weather systems on Earth are electrically connected to the field of charged particles, the ionosphere. Dual bands of plasma shining in ultraviolet light were detected by the MAGE satellite. an (Source: Thunderbolts.info, 12 August 2010, http://www.thunderbolts.info/ tpod/2o010/archto/100812sun.htm) 46 * NEXUS The Sun's electric field extends for OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com