The strange case of solar flares and radioactive elements

[bananas]

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/sun-082310.html

Stanford Report, August 23, 2010

The strange case of solar flares and radioactive elements

When researchers found an unusual linkage between solar flares and the inner life of radioactive elements on Earth, it touched off a scientific detective investigation that could end up protecting the lives of space-walking astronauts and maybe rewriting some of the assumptions of physics.

BY DAN STOBER

It's a mystery that presented itself unexpectedly: The radioactive decay of some elements sitting quietly in laboratories on Earth seemed to be influenced by activities inside the sun, 93 million miles away.

Is this possible?

Researchers from Stanford and Purdue University believe it is. But their explanation of how it happens opens the door to yet another mystery.

There is even an outside chance that this unexpected effect is brought about by a previously unknown particle emitted by the sun. "That would be truly remarkable," said Peter Sturrock, Stanford professor emeritus of applied physics and an expert on the inner workings of the sun.

<snip>

[truedelphi]

1. One of the facts arbout radioactive particles is that some are emitted

Immediately after the event - say a solar flare. And sometimes a particle comes into being (Let's take a hypothetical) and exists starting two weeks later but for only one one thousandth of a nano second.

Our scientists have only been observing radiaoactive activity for a bit over one hundred years. Sso I don't think we even have an handle on a particle that might come into being one hundred and forty years down the time tabloe, and then if that particle only lasts half a second...

[truedelphi]

2. K & R. Very interesting.

From the article:

On Dec 13, 2006, the sun itself provided a crucial clue, when a solar flare sent a stream of particles and radiation toward Earth. Purdue nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins, while measuring the decay rate of manganese-54, a short-lived isotope used in medical diagnostics, noticed that the rate dropped slightly during the flare, a decrease that started about a day and a half before the flare.

If this apparent relationship between flares and decay rates proves true, it could lead to a method of predicting solar flares prior to their occurrence, which could help prevent damage to satellites and electric grids, as well as save the lives of astronauts in space.

The decay-rate aberrations that Jenkins noticed occurred during the middle of the night in Indiana – meaning that something produced by the sun had traveled all the way through the Earth to reach Jenkins' detectors. What could the flare send forth that could have such an effect?

####

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Just too crazeeeee, even for me. Nice article though, allows you to exercise your

imagination a bit. K&R.

[Hydra]

6. "Chaos...

Is just our way of saying, 'we're not seeing the pattern.'"

[necso]

4. !

[gordianot]

5. That Science stuff is just too much to believe just ask your Republican representative.......

or Rightwing Presidential candidate.

[Eddie Haskell]

7. Maybe the particles are entangled.

Perhaps the mechanism that creates the flare changes the spin of entangled particles.

[TheMadMonk]

8. Entanglement requires a common origin for the particles.

This ain't that.

[sofa king]

12. They both came from the same supernova....

I don't pretend to understand quantum entanglement at all. But I know a bit about planetary science, enough to know that virtually all of the particles massive enough to be radioactive can trace their common origin to the supernova which predates the formation of our own sun. The sun itself would have acquired most of that material, but the messy formation process also gave a fair amount to this planet.

As I said, I don't know jack about entanglement. Could some particles have been entangled and then separated, with one half of the pair in the sun and the other on earth, maintaining their bizarre relationship for four and a half billion years or more? Hell if I know.

[TheMadMonk]

9. Questions arise: Solar flares have their origins in convective processes...

...in the outer layers of the sun.

Nuclear processes occur in the core. These DRIVE those convective processes, but don't MODULATE them to any great degree.

And what is the directional correlation of this effect? Does any solar flare do it? Or only the ones aimed Earthwards?


Next obvious test is to continuously monitor multiple samples scattered around the world. Like the many @home CPU sharing initiatives, this strikes me as something fully ammenable to a mass assault. Get your miligram sample on a USB-key and start generating random numbers. Let everyone see if the effect can be found in their individual samples, and if it persists in a worldwide agregate.

[Thor_MN]

10. Around the world is not nearly scattered enough

They would need to be in solar orbit, the earth at any point in time is a very small portion of the sun's view of the universe.

[bananas]

11. There's a seasonal variation in decay rates

<snip>

Checking data collected at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and the Federal Physical and Technical Institute in Germany, they came across something even more surprising: long-term observation of the decay rate of silicon-32 and radium-226 seemed to show a small seasonal variation. The decay rate was ever so slightly faster in winter than in summer.

<snip>

Their findings strengthened the argument that the strange swings in decay rates were caused by neutrinos from the sun. The swings seemed to be in synch with the Earth's elliptical orbit, with the decay rates oscillating as the Earth came closer to the sun (where it would be exposed to more neutrinos) and then moving away.

<snip>

Sturrock knew from long experience that the intensity of the barrage of neutrinos the sun continuously sends racing toward Earth varies on a regular basis as the sun itself revolves and shows a different face, like a slower version of the revolving light on a police car. His advice to Purdue: Look for evidence that the changes in radioactive decay on Earth vary with the rotation of the sun. "That's what I suggested. And that's what we have done."

<snip>

[Nihil]

13. Fascinating article ...

... thanks for posting it!

:toast: