Posted on 05/31/2009 1:13:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Unlike, say, Mars's or Venus's, Earth's atmosphere was thought to be untouchable inside our protective magnetic field. But a new study says the sun is slowly "stealing" our atmosphere -- and at a greater rate than on Mars or Venus. Mars, for example, probably started out with a thick atmosphere similar to Earth's. But without a magnetic field to protect the Martian atmosphere, the solar wind -- actually a stream of charged particles from the sun -- has been eroding it away. Venus also lacks a magnetosphere and is being stripped of its atmospheric covering. Currently its rate of loss has outpaced that on Mars. Typically hailed as a protective buffer from the sun's brute power, Earth's magnetosphere is actually helping the sun's energized particles strip away a tiny fraction of Earth's atmosphere, the new study says. "We're, in fact, losing more oxygen and more hydrogen than even Venus is today," said Chris Russell, a professor of space physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We often tell our colleagues and ourselves that we are fortunate living on this planet, because we have this magnetic shield that protects us," Russell said... An international team of researchers has been tracking planetary atmospheres using the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission for Venus and Mars and NASA's Small Explorer Mission (SMEX) for Earth. SMEX also harbors an instrument for measuring magnetic activity on Earth... Earth's magnetic field funnels and guides that energy to the upper atmosphere, heating the atmosphere and allowing bits of it to escape along the very same funnels that guided the energy in... At the current rate, our present atmospheric inventory can last at least until the sun -- midway through its life now -- turns into a red giant and engulfs Earth, Russell said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
Earth is protected from the full brunt of the solar wind by its magnetic field, a "bubble" created by magnetic field lines (seen above in blue in an artist's conception). But the magnetosphere is also helping the sun to steal away a tiny fraction of Earth's atmosphere, according to research announced in May 2009. -- Image courtesy NASA/MSFC
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You’ll never get out of this world alive, so why worry about “atmosphere?”
Lets see if the scientist and Gore”istas decide we need to blow up the sun to survive...Jeeeeez,,, if you want to bake the earth you must have good reason, I am ready.
And people worry about carbon dioxide.
Might as well worry about the price of pork in Palestine.
Remember back in the good old days when the sun actually looked like that once on a while?
Lately it looks like a large orange, and nothing more.
Weeeeerrrrrrreeeee DOOOOOOOMED!
once IN a while.
I’m sure it’s only the LEFT side of the Sun which is felonious thief.
/sarc
I’m workin’ on my tan.
Me too! We get LOTS of sun here, so I sit outside and soak it up!!
I’ve never heard of this discovery..you’re telling me that it’s the sun’s fault and NOT...gulp...humans fault?!
bttt
Just what we need, one more damn crisis!
Let’s pump more carbon into the atmosphere so that it will be heavier and harder to drag away! :)
I was starting to pack until I got to the last sentence, above.
Blowing up the sun will stop both the theft of our atmosphere and global warming.
Al Gore - This mission, should you choose to accept it...
Surely the EPA can get on top of this.
I just want to say this never happened until BUSH. /s
At the current rate, our present atmospheric inventory can last at least until the sun -- midway through its life now -- turns into a red giant and engulfs Earth, Russell said.
I was sweating bullets until this last line...now I only have to worry about this problem on alternate Tuesdays...
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