Rossby waves discovered on the Sun, just like on Earth! might help scientists to predict solar flares and space weather!

Earth’s weather patterns and jet streams are caused by giant ripples known as planetary waves or Rossby waves. Now, researchers have found a similar feature on the Sun, just on a more massive scale.
Also Read: Crazy asteroid spinning the wrong way is playing a ‘game of chicken’ with Jupiter!
Rossby waves were first discovered in the Earth’s atmosphere in the late 1930s. These waves are said to affect local weather.
Rossby waves were recently identified on the Sun, studying these waves could aid scientists better predict sunspots and solar flares.
The research was carried out by Scott McIntosh, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), William Cramer of Yale University, Manuel Pichardo Marcano of Texas Tech University, and Robert Leamon of the University of Maryland, College Park.
www.ibtimes.co.in/rossby-waves-first-spotted-earth-have-now-been-discovered-sun-721479
Astronomers have discovered ripples moving across the sun that appear similar to weather-driving atmospheric waves on Earth.
According to Science Alert, the huge, magnetized waves that drive weather patterns on Earth are called Rossby or planetary waves. The Rossby waves on Earth are usually found high in the atmosphere.
Now, researchers have detected the same type of wave moving across the sun’s surface, where the waves can be planet-sized. Scientists hope that the presence of Rossby waves on the sun might help future predictions of space weather including solar storms and flares.
“The discovery of magnetized Rossby waves on the Sun offers the tantalizing possibility that we can predict space weather much further in advance,” Scott McIntosh of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said in a statement.
thespacereporter.com/2017/03/atmospheric-solar-waves-help-predict-space-weather/
Astronomers have discovered ripples moving across the sun that appear similar to weather-driving atmospheric waves on Earth.
According to Science Alert, the huge, magnetized waves that drive weather patterns on Earth are called Rossby or planetary waves. The Rossby waves on Earth are usually found high in the atmosphere.
Now, researchers have detected the same type of wave moving across the sun’s surface, where the waves can be planet-sized. Scientists hope that the presence of Rossby waves on the sun might help future predictions of space weather including solar storms and flares.
“The discovery of magnetized Rossby waves on the Sun offers the tantalizing possibility that we can predict space weather much further in advance,” Scott McIntosh of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said in a statement.
thespacereporter.com/2017/03/atmospheric-solar-waves-help-predict-space-weather/
While it has long been hard to predict solar flares, new research has uncovered a mechanism that may help forecasting these explosions.
The research finds a phenomenon similar to a common weather system seen on our own planet. Weather on Earth reacts to the influence of jet streams, which blow air in narrow currents around the globe. These atmospheric currents are a type of Rossby wave, movements driven by the planet’s rotation.
Using comprehensive imaging of the entire sun with data from the NASA heliophysics Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory—STEREO—and Solar Dynamics Observatory—SDO—scientists have now found proof of Rossby waves on the sun.
The results, published in a new article in Nature Astronomy may allow for long-term space weather forecasting, thus helping better protect satellites and manned missions vulnerable to high-energy particles released from solar activity.
“It’s not a huge surprise that these things exist on the sun. The cool part is what they do,” said lead author Scott McIntosh, director of the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. “Just like the jet stream and the gulf stream on Earth, these guys on the sun drive weather—space weather
Read more at:
phys.org/news/2017-03-sun-nasa-insight-space-weather.html#jCp
Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research have discovered Rossby waves on the sun. The large-scale planetary waves were first discovered on Earth.
On Earth, Rossby waves are correlated with local weather events. On the sun, scientists suggest the waves could influence solar activity and related phenomena, like sunspots and solar flares.
“The discovery of magnetized Rossby waves on the Sun offers the tantalizing possibility that we can predict space weather much further in advance,” lead researcher Scott McIntosh said in a news release.
www.upi.com/Science_News/2017/03/27/Large-scale-planetary-waves-found-on-the-sun/6321490637904/
Earth-like waves spotted around the Sun could help us predict space weather
The discovery could link a range of solar phenomena including solar flares and the Sun’s 11-year cycle
www.wired.co.uk/article/planetary-waves-earth-sun
Planet-Size “Waves” Spotted in the Sun’s Atmosphere
Long-sought features may help researchers improve models of solar activity and predict space weather
Nature magazine on March 28, 2017
www.scientificamerican.com/article/planet-size-waves-spotted-in-the-suns-atmosphere/

What is a so-called neutron star? Scientists tell us that the material left over from a supernova explosion of a massive star collapses gravitationally, forming an incredibly small yet massively dense star mostly composed of tightly packed neutrons. A rotating neutron star is said to emit regular pulses of radio waves and other sources of radiation, called pulsars.
But the hypothesis of the neutron star was not a predictive theory that was composed and then verified through observation — rather,
it was invented in the 1960’s, after the completely unexpected discovery of radio pulses from the constellation Vulpecula. Today, we report on the latest in a string of “baffling” discoveries that in effect falsify the neutron star hypothesis, and we explore theoretical alternatives in the Electric Universe and plasma cosmology.
ESA’s XMM-Newton has found a pulsar – the spinning remains of a once-massive star – that is a thousand times brighter than previously thought possible.
The pulsar is also the most distant of its kind ever detected, with its light travelling 50 million light-years before being detected by XMM-Newton.
Pulsars are spinning, magnetised neutron stars that sweep regular pulses of radiation in two symmetrical beams across the cosmos. If suitably aligned with Earth these beams are like a lighthouse beacon appearing to flash on and off as it rotates. They were once massive stars that exploded as a powerful supernova at the end of their natural life, before becoming small and extraordinarily dense stellar corpses.
This X-ray source is the most luminous of its type detected to date: it is 10 times brighter than the previous record holder. In one second it emits the same amount of energy released by our sun in 3.5 years.
XMM-Newton observed the object several times in the last 13 years, with the discovery a result of a systematic search for pulsars in the data archive – its 1.13 s periodic pulses giving it away.
The signal was also identified in NASA’s Nustar archive data, providing additional information.
“Before, it was believed that only black holes at least 10 times more massive than our sun feeding off their stellar companions could achieve such extraordinary luminosities, but the rapid and regular pulsations of this source are the fingerprints of neutron stars and clearly distinguish them from black holes,” says Gian Luca Israel, from INAF-Osservatorio Astronomica di Roma, Italy, lead author of the paper describing the result published in Science this week.
The archival data also revealed that the pulsar’s spin rate has changed over time, from 1.43 s per rotation in 2003 to 1.13 s in 2014. The same relative acceleration in Earth’s rotation would shorten a day by five hours in the same time span
Read more at:
phys.org/news/2017-02-brightest-furthest-pulsar-universe.html#jCp
Classical physics states that a crystal consists of perfectly ordered particles from a continuous symmetrical atomic structure. The Mermin-Wagner theorem from 1966 broke with this view: it states that in one-dimensional and two-dimensional atomic structures (for example in an atomic chain or membrane) there cannot be perfect ordering of particles over long ranges.
Now, 50 years later, a group of physicists from Konstanz headed by Dr Peter Keim, were able to prove the Mermin-Wagner theorem by experiments and computer simulations – at the same time as two international working groups from Japan and the USA. The research results were published in the 21 February 2017 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) scientific journal.
Based on a model system of colloids, Peter Keim was able to prove that in low-dimensional systems slow but steadily growing fluctuations occur in the distance between particles: the positions deviate from perfect lattice sites, distances frequently increase or decrease. Crystal formation over long ranges is therefore not possible in low-dimensional materials.
Read more at:
phys.org/news/2017-03-mermin-wagner-fluctuations.html#jCp

 
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