Extreme Space Weather

“So on the morning of 29 December 2004, when a colleague from the U.S. space agency NASA sent me a message entitled “URGENT!”, I didn’t exactly jump to attention. It took me about an hour to get around to reading this email, at which point I learnt that “SGR 1806-20 just emitted a giant flare”.

This is a concise way of saying that about 50,000 light-years away, a bizarre type of star called a ‘magnetar’ – only about 20 km across, but much heavier than the Sun and with a magnetic field a 1,000 trillion times stronger than the Earth’s – had emitted an enormous pulse of gamma-ray radiation.

How enormous? Well it took us a few days to realise just what we were dealing with, but we now know that SGR 1806-20 had generated a kind of ‘solar flare on steroids’, resulting in the brightest explosion in the history of astronomy. Brighter than the powerful gamma-ray bursts produced when distant black holes are born, brighter than the once-in-a-century supernova explosions recorded by the ancient Chinese and often visible in broad daylight, brighter even than the full Moon. This little magnetar gave off more energy in 0.2 seconds than the Sun does in about 200,000 years”

Bryan Gaensler, Issue 2 of Cosmos, August 2005 by Bryan Gaensler

The Cosmic Homeopathy, is over! Space Weather is now getting extreme!

Even though the Sun is quiet after historic blasts during solar cycle 23, Earth is still experiencing extreme Space Weather events. There are now regular blasts from gamma-ray sources and extreme events attributed to mystery objects known as Magnetars (a type of neutron star), which are the most magnetic celestial objects in the whole universe. The magnetar, referred to as the soft-gamma-ray repeater SGR J1550-5418, started with modest eruptions on 3 October 2008 and appeared to settle down, but on 21st-22nd January 2009, it roared back to life with a more intense round of flares. There are only 18 objects of this type that have been identified (see below) and scientists jokingly refer to the energetic blasts as “solar flares on steroids”, but the impact is no joke. In 1/10 of a second, this type of a neutron star or magnetar, can release as much energy as the Sun would in 100,000 years. For more info see, Gamma-Ray Fireworks Now Erupting from Rare Stellar Object

Magnetar Effects on Earth's Magnetosphere (Earth's Magnetic shield) which took a pounding on 4th February 2009

The comment on YouTube, from someone in the know is; “No wonder the magnetosphere has three holes already and are not healing”. Hmmm.... maybe the Mayan prediction that we are facing a New Age dominated by space and the ether is coming true!

Magnetar Effects on Earth's Magnetosphere (Earths Magnetic shield) During the Megablast 21st-22nd January 2009

Magnetar Effects on Earth's Magnetosphere & Sudden Cosmic Global Warming 21st-22nd January 2009

Don't be confused, scientists later re-catalogued AXP 1E 1547.0-5408 as being SGR J1550-5418. Watch the video with the scientific facts that we experienced a massive global warming event when the temperature of the stratosphere over the Arctic suddenly shot up by about 50C. It is after this series of events that it became know that the Obama Administration started making discreet enquiries about planetary challenges that would result in evolutionary change, but unfortunately, the various well known metaphysical leaders who were approached, could not even hazard a guess.

Yet, there are documented metaphysical sources that provided information from 50 years ago, that we were moving into a new region of space that would drive evolutionary changes. Hence, there have been murmurings from the scientific community, but the dating of this transition by the astrophysical community, even 10 years ago, was completely inaccurate. Fortunately, Russians scientists were kind enough to tell us in 1998, that we had hit the filamentary transition zone and astrophysicists can now confirm that we have arrived in a new area of interstellar space with major concerns that we will hit a small cloudlet that could vapourise the heliosphere (our solar system shielding). Therefore, it seems that the changes taking place on Earth are complex but they are being driven by cosmic factors and we need expert opinion combined with metaphysical insight to help steer mankind in this time of evolutionary change.

Anomalous Events In July 2009

11 hour Nict Earth's Magnetosphere Pressure Simulation of major activity - 9/10th July 2009

Even though the solar wind never reached storm levels, there was quite a unique event that apparently, has not been seen since the last maximum of Solar Cycle 24. It must be noted that this was about the same time that crop circles were being interpreted as a message that there would be 5 CMEs that would arrive on the 6/7th July 2009. Well, there were some very small CMEs around the 3rd July, but nothing major. However, this is evidence of major activity and implies energy was arriving from interstellar space. Computer simulations shows that we actually lost our normal shielding and for 5 days starting on the 7th July, the magnetopause, the boundary between Earth and outer space went to “dangerous” levels. Stop the video at [0:50] and look at the Magnetopause boundary position that had been pushed within geosynchronous orbit. This is some real evidence that something strange happened. The video below explains the start of this event.

The Earth's Magnetosphere: Anomalous Behavior 7th July 2009

Stop the video at [0:29] and look at the magnetopause position that had been pushed within geosynchronous orbit. We basically lost our normal buffer between Earth and space for about 5 days which provided the opportunity for the delivery of a higher quanity of evolutionary energies. All rather interesting!

Real-time Magnetosphere Simulation

These YouTube videos have been composed from computer simulation produced by Japanese scientists, using real-time solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field data observed routinely by the ACE satellite.

Credit: Simulation Team, Space Environment Group, Applied Electromagnetic Research Center National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Koganei, Tokyo 184-8795. Please note: The Real-time Magnetosphere Simulation Japan is now no longer available.

Above is an example of how variations in the earth's magnetosphere, associated with a substorm, are observed in a computer simulation (3-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulation). The solid circle near the center represents the earth and the solar wind blows from the left side. Numerical simulations provide one of the most powerful tools in revealing dynamic phenomena in the space environment.

What are Magnetars?

Feel the force. Ultramagnetized neutron stars,
called magnetars, unleash powerful flares spawned
by the most extreme magnetic fields known.
Credit: SCIENCES, VOL 304, APRIL 2004

A magnetar is a neutron star with a strong magnetic field. The conventional explanation is that in a supernova explosion, a star collapses to become a neutron star and its magnetic field increases dramatically in strength. Astronomers Robert Duncan and Christopher Thompson calculated that the magnetic field of a neutron star, normally an already enormous 10¹² tesla could under certain circumstances grow even larger, to about 10¹⁵ tesla. It is theorised that the outer layers of a magnetar consists of a plasma of heavy elements (mostly iron) and this causes tension which leads to 'starquakes'. These seismic vibrations are extremely energetic, and result in a burst of X-ray and gamma ray radiation. To astronomers, such an object is known as a Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR).

It is estimated that about 1 in 10 supernova explosions results in a magnetar rather than a more standard neutron star or pulsar, but this can only happen when the star already has a fast rotation and strong magnetic field in the first place before the supernova. It is thought that a magnetar's magnetic field is created as a result of a convection-driven dynamo of hot nuclear matter in the neutron star's interior that operates in the first ten seconds or so of a neutron star's life.

The life of a magnetar as a Soft Gamma Repeater is short: The energy of these explosions slows the rotation (causing magnetars to rotate much more slowly than other neutron stars of a similar age) and lessens the electric field, and after only about 10,000 years the starquakes are over. After this, the star still radiates X-rays, forming an object known to astronomers as an anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP). After yet another 10,000 years, it is completely quiet. At the moment (2009), 6 soft gamma repeaters and 9 anomalous X-ray pulsars are known. For reference see, Magnetars, but scientists are speculating that apparent Gamma Ray bursts could be from Magnetars, and so sources of information do vary.

This image is out of date as there are now at least 15 Magnetar candidates
(Right click to view bigger image)
Credit: Scientific American, February 2003

Of course this ignores the fact that we live in a Universe filled with plasma that exhibits electrical phenomena. Hence, there is an alternative and more simple explanation. Plasma physicists would just compare the the electrical behavior of plasma in the laboratory with that seen in nearby space to explain the observations from magnetars. Plasma cosmologists know that magnetic fields don't stand alone, but are induced by electric currents. There must be an intense electric current feeding the magnetar, and this feeder current must be part of a circuit, since every electric circuit must close. What's more, according to plasma physicists, the energetic signature of the observed outbursts matches the characteristic signature of electric discharge. The outburst begins with a sudden peak of energy, and then declines gradually, see image below. For further Electric Universe commentary, see Magnetars–A Computer's Dream World

Credit: Scientific American, February 2003

“STARQUAKE ON A MAGNETAR releases a vast amount of magnetic energy — equivalent to the seismic energy of a magnitude 21 earthquake — and unleashes a fireball of plasma. The fireball gets trapped by the magnetic field.” “Some stars are magnetized so intensely that they emit huge bursts of magnetic energy and alter the very nature of the quantum vacuum.” By Chryssa Kouveliotou, Robert C. Duncan, and Christopher Thompson February 2003 Scientific American cover story on magnetars

The following article dated, June 18th, 2009 OK, so maybe we can be a *little* frightened is written by well known astronomy skeptic Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy.com, who writes: “I don’t spend much time discussing magnetars. Although terrifying — able to generate truly mind-numbing outbursts which I’ll describe in a moment — they are simply too rare and too far away to be much of a threat. Yeah, well, I might’ve been wrong. A little wrong, I mean; there’s no reason to panic. Life on Earth won’t be snuffed out by some rogue magnetar blasting away our atmosphere or anything like that. But one of my main premises for feeling completely safe has been eroded a bit, and to be fair I should talk about it.”

Credit: NASA/Swift/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet

The issue is the huge levels of magnetic power that are delivered in massive outbursts. Astronomers estimate that in 0.1 seconds, a magnetar gives off more energy than the Sun does in about 10,000 - 100,000 years. Yes, that's an order of magnitude difference in estimates, but that's what is provided in the current literature and so we know for a fact that Magnetar outbursts make the most extreme contributions to our Space Weather. Yet, Earth has experienced more of these outbursts in recent times confirming sources that predicted that we would experience massive increases in subtle energies that would arrive from deep space.

Animation of magnetar XTE J1810-197

An artist's impression of magnetar XTE J1810-197
showing the radio emissions and the magnetic field. Source: link

Watch this video of an artist's impression of magnetar XTE J1810-197 and listen to the radio pulses being emitted. (0:35) You will get the distinct impression that this is an electrical phenomenon! Low bandwidth Streaming video, Broadband Streaming video

Evolutionary Upgrade Time?

The world is facing energy driven evolution, orchestrated by a massive bombardment of electromagnetic energy from solar, cosmic and galactic sources, caused by solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), cosmic & galactic rays, & Gamma Rays, (GRBs). It is a popular belief within metaphysical circles that Earth may be affected by massive blasts from centre of our Milky Way galaxy. Yet, the recent increase in Magnetar blasts from the other side of our galaxy suggests that the galactic centre is not our only concern.

Some researchers believe that the December 26th 2004 magnitude 9.3 earthquake that occurred in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sumatra in Malaysia and subsequent tsunami, may have been related. This historic event devastated coastal regions of many countries leaving over 240,000 people either dead or missing. Interestingly, just 44.6 hours later gamma ray telescopes orbiting the Earth picked up the arrival of the brightest gamma ray burst ever recorded. However, it took authorities almost two months for details of this gamma ray burst to be announced to the public. Obviously, two extraordinary events occuring within a very short time-frame suggested to some researchers that the GRB and Tsunami were related.

Eventually, the facts have been established that this was an extreme gamma ray blast, 100 times more intense than any burst that had been previously recorded, equaling the brightness of the full Moon, but radiating most of its energy at gamma ray wavelengths. Gamma ray counts spiked to a maximum in 1.5 seconds and then declined over a 5 minute period with 7.57 second pulsations. The blast temporarily changed the shape the Earth's ionosphere, distorting the transmission of long-wavelength radio signals. It was determined that the burst originated from the soft gamma ray repeater star, SGR 1806-20, a neutron star 20 kilometers in diameter which rotates once every 7.5 seconds, matching the GRB pulsation period. SGR 1806-20 is located about 10 degrees northeast of the Galactic center and about 20,000 to 32,000 light years from us, or about as far away as the Galactic center. In an article written by Dr. Paul LaViolette, an astrophysicist who is also an expert on Space Weather, we find the following quote:

“Astronomers have theorized that gamma ray bursts might travel in association with gravity wave bursts. In the course of their flight through space, gamma rays would be deflected by gravitational fields and would be scattered by dust and cosmic ray particles they encountered, so they would be expected to travel slightly slower than their associated gravity wave burst which would pass through space unimpeded. After a 45,000 year light-speed journey, a gamma ray burst arrival delay of 44.6 hours would not be unexpected. It amounts to a delay of just one part in 9 million. So if the gravity wave traveled at the speed of light (c), the gamma ray burst would have averaged a speed of 0.99999989 c, just 0.11 millionths slower. There is also the possibility that at the beginning of its journey the gravity wave may have had a superluminal speed; see textbox below.

The 9.3 Richter earthquake was ten times stronger than any other earthquake during the past 25 years, and was followed just 44.6 hours later on December 27th by a very intense gamma ray burst, which was 100 fold brighter than any other in the past 25 year history of gamma ray observation. It seems difficult to pass off the temporal proximity of these two Class I events as being just a matter of coincidence. A time period of 25 years compared to a time separation of 44.6 hours amounts to a time ratio of about 5000:1. For two such unique events to have such a close time proximity is highly improbable if they are not somehow related. But, as mentioned above, gravity waves would very likely be associated with gamma ray bursts, and they would be expected to precede them.”

Source: Was the December 26, 2004 Indonesian Earthquake and Tsunami Caused by a Stellar Explosion 26,000 Light Years Away?.

Map of countries effected by the December 2004 Sumatran Tsunami

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