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Plasma Physics of the Local Cosmos (2004) / Chapter Skim
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1 Our Local Cosmic Laboratory
Pages 5-10

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From page 5...
... Plasmas generate cosmic rays, stellar flares, coronal mass ejections, interstellar and interplanetary shock waves, magnetospheric storms, and a cacophony of radio waves. Plasmas absorb energy flowing steadily from the nuclear reactions within stars and from angular momentum shed by spinning magnetized bodies and release it explosively as x-rays and energetic particles.
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From page 6...
... Since then, this tendency has revealed itself whenever instruments with new eyes have looked, making sudden energy release in the cosmos a central theme in space physics and plasma astrophysics. The deep mystery of how the Sun influences the geomagnetic field—an influence Lord Kelvin dismissed as ha mere coincidences but Sir John Herschel lauded as presaging ha vast cosmical discovery such as nothing hitherto imagined can compare with—led a century later to the prediction of the solar windy Confirmation and generalization to stellar winds soon followed.
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From page 7...
... Studies by space physicists of auroral kilometric radiation provide a terrestrial example of how the coupling of in situ observations and theory has led to a detailed understanding of the electron-cyclotron maser instability, a wonderfully efficient mechanism for moving energy from particle motions into radio waves. This theory is finding wide application in interpreting emissions from all magnetized outer planets (in particular, Jupiter)
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From page 8...
... First, it likely occurs wherever dynamos create magnetic fields almost everywhere in the universe. Second, magnetic reconnection plays a central role in solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and the dynamics of magnetospheres.
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From page 9...
... . The generation of filaments and flux ropes results from differential flows that stretch magnetic fields, which then, through instability or reconnection, segregate into coherent tubes of fixed flux, Current sheets spontaneously form whenever and wherever magnetized plasmas of different origins meet.
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From page 10...
... , 569, 574 575, December 6, 1 994, and Solar activity and geomag netic storms The CO muscular hypothesis, Eos, TransacRons, Amencan Geophysical Union 75(52) , 609, 612 613, December 27, 1994 4 On the intersection between space Physics and Plasma ast ophysics, see also the chaps r titled Connections Between Solar and Space Physics and Other Disciplines in the recent NRC repros The 5 m to the Earth and Beyond A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics, The National Academ ies Err ss, Washingkon, D C, 2003
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Key Terms

  • magnetic fields
  • cosmic plasmas
  • plasma astrophysics
  • magnetized plasmas
  • solar wind

  • solar flares
  • space plasma
  • plasma physics
  • magnetic reconnection
  • energetic particles

  • radio waves
  • explosive energy
  • coronal mass
  • mass ejections
  • energy release

  • cosmic rays
  • magnetic field
  • magnetic energy
  • electric fields
  • plasma regimes

  • cosmic laboratory
  • differential flows
  • wide application
  • understanding cosmic
  • detailed understanding

  • fundamental plasma
  • efficient mechanism
  • astrophysical plasma
  • local cosmic
  • energy conversion


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