A1_7 That's No Exoplanet!

As the Death Star II passes in front of the star of the Endor system, it could be detected using the methods of transit photometry and Doppler spectroscopy, commonly used to discover exoplanets. We find that theDeath Star II would cause a 1.3x10^-6% drop in the flux from the star, and cause the star to have a radial velocity of 1.9x10^-12ms^-1, undetectable with current technology

A1_1 Bruce Almighty: Moon Wrangler

In the film Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey, as a romantic gesture he erases the clouds in the sky and draws the Moon closer to the Earth, using an invisible lasso. In this paper we have calculated 2.1x10^27N would be needed to pull the Moon towards the Earth. We have also discussed the ramifications of changing the Moon's distance from the Earth with tides rising to a height of 12.0m

A1_3 Dinosaur In-dial-gestion

In this paper we investigate the attenuation of sound waves originating from a ringing mobile phone, as they travel outwards from the stomach of a Spinosaurus, in order to determine whether they could act as a warning of the approaching dinosaur. Calculating the intensity lost crossing between the various media in the dinosaur's body, as well as air outside of the dinosaur, we determined this would not be possible. We calculated that the intensity of the phone ringing would be -19.6 dB when it reached their ears, which puts it just below the range of human hearing

A1_6 Ali G Cracks The Safe

Ali G sets up an elaborate plan to break into a safe - he links a series of cars together via their batteries to a human chain, to carry an electric current along, break into a safe and retrieve a video tape. We found the current needed to melt the lock of the safe to break it to be 7.98x10^5 A. The current calculated that reaches the safe in the scenario is 4.59x10^-5 A, therefore it would not be possible to break into the safe via the method used in the film

Substorm Onset Latitude and the Steadiness of Magnetospheric Convection

We study the role of substorms and steady magnetospheric convection (SMC) in magnetic flux transport in the magnetosphere, using observations of field‐aligned currents by the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment. We identify two classes of substorm, with onsets above and below 65° magnetic latitude, which display different nightside field‐aligned current morphologies. We show that the low‐latitude onsets develop a poleward‐expanding auroral bulge, and identify these as substorms that manifest ionospheric convection‐braking in the auroral bulge region as suggested by Grocott et al. (2009, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-591-2009). We show that the high‐latitude substorms, which do not experience braking, can evolve into SMC events if the interplanetary magnetic field remains southward for a prolonged period following onset. We conclude that during periods of ongoing driving, the magnetosphere displays repeated substorm activity or SMC depending on the rate of driving and the open magnetic flux content of the magnetosphere prior to onset. We speculate that sawtooth events are an extreme case of repeated onsets and that substorms triggered by northward‐turnings of the interplanetary magnetic field mark the cessation of periods of SMC. Our results provide a new explanation for the differing modes of response of the terrestrial system to solar wind‐magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling by invoking friction between the ionosphere and atmosphere.publishedVersio

A1_2 One Punch Man - Speed Test

Saitama, the hero of "One Punch Man" has seemingly immeasurable strength and speed. We attempt to quantify his speed from a scene in which he jumps from the Moon to the Earth. We calculated Saitama's velocity during this action as 6.7% of the speed of light, and that his collision with the Earth would create a crater of 600m in diameter. This is comparable to a Near-Earth Object impact of 8 on the Torino Scale

Multi-instrument observations of the effects of a solar wind pressure pulse on the high latitude ionosphere : a detailed case study of a geomagnetic sudden impulse

Funding: ARF was supported by an STFC studentship, Science Foundation Ireland Grant 18/FRL/6199, and an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship GOIPD/2022/782. ML, TKY, and SEM acknowledge support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, UKRI, grant no. ST/W00089X/1. JAC is supported by Royal Society grant DHF\R1\211068. HKS was supported by an STFC studentship. TE was supported by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2019-155), the University of Leicester and the University of Glasgow. SJW was supported by NERC studentship NE/L002493/1. MKJ was supported by STFC Grant ST/W00089X/1. JML was supported by the Irish Research Council. LJP was supported by AFOSR MURI Award 26-0201-51-62.The effects of a solar wind pressure pulse on the terrestrial magnetosphere have been observed in detail across multiple datasets. The communication of these effects into the magnetosphere is known as a positive geomagnetic sudden impulse (+SI), and are observed across latitudes and different phenomena to characterise the propagation of +SI effects through the magnetosphere. A superposition of Alfvén and compressional propagation modes are observed in magnetometer signatures, with the dominance of these signatures varying with latitude. For the first time, collocated lobe reconnection convection vortices and region 0 field aligned currents are observed preceding the +SI onset, and an enhancement of these signatures is observed as a result of +SI effects. Finally, cusp auroral emission is observed collocated with the convection and current signatures. For the first time, simultaneous observations across multiple phenomena are presented to confirm models of +SI propagation presented previously.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Timescales of Dayside and Nightside Field-Aligned Current Response to Changes in Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling

Principal component analysis is performed on Birkeland or field-aligned current (FAC) measurements from the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment, to determine the response of dayside and nightside FACs to reversals in the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and the occurrence of substorms. Dayside FACs respond promptly to changes in IMF BY, but the nightside response is delayed by up to an hour and can take up to 4 hr to develop fully, especially during northward IMF. Nightside FAC asymmetries grow during substorm growth phase when the IMF has a significant BY component, and also promptly at substorm onset. Our findings suggest that magnetotail twisting and/or BY penetration into the magnetotail, due to subsolar reconnection with east-west orientated IMF, are the main cause of these nightside FAC asymmetries and that asymmetries also arise due to magnetotail reconnection of these twisted field lines