Rob Wedge
Jersey
Apparently Earth is the Mutombo of our galaxy. NASA just recently discovered that besides our magnetosphere we have a secondary defense to solar winds and other nasties. Earth also has an arm that extends out and actually blocks them during bad solar storms.
"Now, for the first time, a study shows that in certain circumstances a pool of dense particles normally circling Earth, deep inside the magnetosphere, can extend a long arm out to meet – and help block – incoming solar material.
"It’s like what you might do if a monster tried to break into your house. You’d stack furniture up against the front door, and that’s close to what the Earth is doing here," said Brian Walsh, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The material that is usually much nearer Earth stacks up against the outer boundary of the magnetosphere, throttling the interaction there and stopping solar material from entering.""
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard...otects-earth-from-space-weather/#.Uxm48s4qPFx
"Now, for the first time, a study shows that in certain circumstances a pool of dense particles normally circling Earth, deep inside the magnetosphere, can extend a long arm out to meet – and help block – incoming solar material.
"It’s like what you might do if a monster tried to break into your house. You’d stack furniture up against the front door, and that’s close to what the Earth is doing here," said Brian Walsh, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The material that is usually much nearer Earth stacks up against the outer boundary of the magnetosphere, throttling the interaction there and stopping solar material from entering.""
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard...otects-earth-from-space-weather/#.Uxm48s4qPFx
