LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
May 18, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     elizabeth warren     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

The History That Birthed the Tsarnaev Boys

This Is Water: Fishy Advice From David Foster Wallace

Jerry Brown: California's Mystery Man

'The Daily Show': Stewart Slams Hypocrites Cheney and Rumsfeld

Chris Hedges: The 'Terrifying' State Assault on Press Freedom

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * How the IRS’ Nonprofit Division Got So Dysfunctional
 * NEW! * Recurring Nightmares? Wake Up and Take Action

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Act of Congress
Daily Rituals
The Girls of Atomic City

Digs

Truthdig Bazaar more items

 
Ear to the Ground

The Shape of Our Solar System

Email this item Email    Print this item Print    Share this item... Share

Posted on May 11, 2007

Our solar system isn’t the good old circle or oval you might have thought it is.  According to research reported on this week by National Geographic News, it is bullet-shaped.


National Geographic:

The system travels within a bubble of solar wind—made of charged particles from the sun—called the heliosphere.

The edge of this bubble collides with the Milky Way galaxy’s magnetic field at a distance some 200 times farther from the sun than Earth is.

A research team led by Merav Opher at Virginia’s George Mason University found that, just outside the solar system, this interstellar magnetic field is inclined at a 60-degree angle relative to the plane of the Milky Way.

The solar system takes on its streamlined shape as it strikes the magnetic field at this angle, Opher explained.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

By Lex Luther, May 16, 2007 at 8:07 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

What is wrong with you people?  Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Copernicus, Gallileo and rabble, were all wrong and wasted their lives in too much thinking.  Six days, remember, and don’t forget it. 

Can we get back to the good old days of a flat earth at the center of the universe please?  We need to be dunking uppity WOMEN in the village pond to see if they are witches:  If they float they’re guilty.  If they drown they’re innocent.  Now that, my friends, is real Science.

The only thing science is good for is making hi tech weapons, as the almighty intended.
God may be and Englishman but Jesus loves Lockheed Martin

Report this

By Scott, May 13, 2007 at 2:26 pm Link to this comment

“We don’t depend on Earth for our existence.”

Any species that believes the hereafter is more relevent than the here and now is doomed to go the way of the Dodo.

Report this

By Logician, May 13, 2007 at 10:22 am Link to this comment

Actually, it isn’t shaped like a bullet, it’s more like a suppository…and all that might imply…no wonder it’s so dark out there…

Think of THAT the next night you’re looking up into space! wink

Cheers!

Report this

By Douglas Chalmers, May 13, 2007 at 1:47 am Link to this comment

#69547 by GW=MCHammered on 5/12 at 8:53 am: “...Why is the speed of light a physical barrier? It appears part of our dimensional fencing. But is it really…?”

Light is photons in motion therefore motion is a dimension - after time, or with it as it is a time-phased sequence in space. That makes five dimensions and there are at least two more.

Report this

By Hondo, May 12, 2007 at 10:45 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

We don’t depend on Earth for our existence. Our solar system, and the Earth that we live on, were created by God. We, the people living here on this Earth, were all created by God, and we were created in His image. Because Adam and Eve fell victim to sin, our Earth is a broken world, so God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to walk among us and to eventually die on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. God raised Jesus on the third day after His death and our salvation was complete. All we have to do to receive this free gift of salvation is to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Read the Book of John in the Bible and you will see what I’m talking about.

Report this

By James Yell, May 12, 2007 at 4:21 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

If I understand the shape they are talking about is the solar wind, not the actual shape of the constituant parts of the solar system, sun, planets and debrie. I guess it is which you think is more important, but does this have any effect upon the solar system. Another nit picking episode like Pluto?

Report this

By Scott, May 12, 2007 at 11:46 am Link to this comment

Space is cool and I dig it. Thanks for the tidbit.

Report this

By GW=MCHammered, May 12, 2007 at 9:53 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Sad we spend most our lives beefing about our place in the cattle pen. Bellowing as we strut-n-hump-n-bump across the feedlot. Kowtowing when another charges ahead and hogs more than their share.

Now how about more digging-4-truth articles with answers to questions like:

Why does the ratio of a circle to its diameter (pi) seem to abate endlessly? Does it somehow define the asymptotic barrier between two dimensions, the one-dimensional line (diameter) and the two-dimensional circle (circumference)?

Do we live in three-dimensions or pi-dimensions? Do Space and Time appear intertwined because we don’t exist in a natural-number universe?

Why does gravity and acceleration seem twin on a common stage? We are surrounded by, indeed permeated with, boundless potential energy for the taking.

Why is the speed of light a physical barrier? It appears part of our dimensional fencing. But is it really?

The better we understand the “shape-n-nature” of our pen, the sooner our minds will be free of more bantam corrals like branding prejudice, wrangling religion, and cowpie politics.

Report this

By Douglas Chalmers, May 12, 2007 at 6:28 am Link to this comment

We all live within a life-sustaining “cloak” of protection which is the Sun’s atmosphere or the solar wind. All of Space around us is filled with this energy while we scratch and fight over our dirty fossil fuels.

Additionally, this Earth is our space refuge and it too generates a protective “cloak” or environment called the magnetosphere in which it is only then possible for biological life to survive.

On this Mothers’ Day, we should all remember the Earth as our supreme Mother who we all continuously depend upon for our existence.

Report this

By QuyTran, May 11, 2007 at 6:51 pm Link to this comment

Bullet-shaped or any-shaped, who cares ?

Report this

By Hammo, May 11, 2007 at 4:33 pm Link to this comment

There is much we average people don’t know about our solar system and this small planet called Earth within it.

Even scientists who study these things are developing new understanding all the time.

And, some related facts and theories are also interesting to consider:

“Earth’s crust and poles wander, drift and shift: Dangerous days ahead?” (AmericanChronicle.com)

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=13364

Report this
Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.