Re: Magnetic field lines like these ?

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, LUDWIK KOWALSKI wrote:

> The magnetic field lines of Van Allen are closed loops going beyond Pluto
> and returning to Sun (Figure 4, page 31). I do not understand this figure.
> It shows a blue patch labeled "Current sheet". What kind of current is he
> referring to? Can solar wind, a macroscopically neutral stream of ionized 
> gas, be responsible for a magnetic field? The stream is eventually 
> dispersed; it does not return to Sun. I must be missing something 
> important.

Electric current could be from relative motion of plasma through the sun's
b-field.  Plasma is a conductor.  Right-hand rule would predict that
radially expanding conductive plasma with a magnetic dipole in the sun
would give roughly a sheet of electric current with concentric direction
of flow. 


((((((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com                                  www.eskimo.com/~billb
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits          science projects, tesla, weird science
Seattle, WA   206-781-3320          freenrg-L taoshum-L vortex-L webhead-L