Posted on 11/06/2007 9:05:46 AM PST by SunkenCiv
NASA's Genesis probe collected particles from the solar wind, a high-energy stream of plasma ejected from the Sun, over a 27-month period from December 2001 to April 2004. The results of the mission are detailed today in the U.S. journal Science... Astronomers believe that evidence of the early evolution of the Sun is trapped as isotopic signatures of elements found within the super-heated surface of the Sun, the solar corona. However, until star-proof spacecraft are developed, sampling the solar wind is the closest that scientists can get to understanding how the Sun was born. Genesis measured the isotopic ratios of neon and argon (both so-called noble gases) over three solar wind speed regimes, low speed (less than 475 km/hr), high speed (onset generally 525 km/hr) and during a coronal mass ejection -- occasional and spectacular ejaculation of bubbles of plasma. The regimes are believed to have different physical origins... The researchers, led by Alex Meshick from Washington University, in St. Louis, U.S., found that the isotopic ratios remained unchanged in the three regimes. This indicates that the solar wind isotopic ratios are probably the same on the Sun; and hints at the isotopic ratios of these noble gases in the early Solar System, before the Sun or planets formed... While not jumping any guns, the researchers noted that the lack of evidence of fractionation between the three speed regimes may help rule out some of the models of solar formation that rely on these elements varying within the Sun.
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmosmagazine.com ...
Genesis Findings Solve Apollo Lunar Soil Mystery
NASA.gov | 11/20/06 | NASA
Posted on 11/21/2006 3:50:41 PM EST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742258/posts
[snip] Ansgar Grimberg from ETH Institute of Astronomy in Zurich and coworkers analyzed the composition of neon in a metallic glass exposed on NASA’s Genesis mission... Many of the lunar sample studies were of the relative amounts of the isotopes of different solar gas elements. Many elements have atoms of different mass. For example, neon has a light isotope (Ne20) and a heavy isotope (Ne22). One of the major surprises from study of the record of neon from the sun in lunar soil samples was evidence for two solar gas components with distinct isotopic compositions. [end]
The Neon Sun: New Study Appears to Solve MysteryThe Sun likely contains nearly three times more neon than previously thought, according to a new study. The finding, if shown to be accurate, solves a theoretical problem regarding how stars in general work... The model was put into question, however, when their value for the neon abundance in the Sun differed from those calculated using other techniques... Drake said the disagreement about the concentration of neon may have been due to problems with both the solar wind technique and the X-ray method... Drake and his colleague Paola Testa from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology got around these problems by measuring the neon abundance of 21 nearby Sun-like stars using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory... nearby stars contained three times more neon than was calculated for the Sun... Drake said the same technique could be used on our own Sun, if not for one problem: the detectors on Chandra's instruments would fry because of the heat.
by Ker Than
27 July 2005
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The Sun: A Great Ball of Iron?
Science Daily
Posted on 07/18/2002 2:33:32 AM EDT by per loin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/718067/posts
and
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1294934/posts?page=11#11
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1570230/posts?page=27#27
14And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Nice tagline.
So, the answer really is blowin’ in the wind.
Partically speaking, yes. ;’)
thanks
Scientists find what makes the solar wind howl (Alfven waves)
Reuters on Yahoo | 12/6/07 | Will Dunham
Posted on 12/06/2007 11:27:41 PM EST by NormsRevenge
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1935977/posts
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