What we observed was the breach in the levee. This has taken us completely by surprise. The opening was huge – four times wider than Earth itself, this kind of influx is an order of magnitude greater than what we thought was possible.

That’s what Jimmy Raeder, a University of New Hampshire physicist says, but but don’t fret, dear readers, because according to Marit Oieroset–Professor of the University of California at Berkeley– even while “it was growing rather fast” the hole only lasted for an hour. During that time, the amount of solar wind getting into the Earth’s surface was twenty times higher than usual.

The news here is that while scientists thought that the solar breach happened when the Earth’s and the sun magnetic fields were in opposite directions, the data gathered from Themis has found exactly the opposite. In other words: These people really don’t have a clue! RUN TO THE SHELTERS NOW! [AP]

That is just the kind of power needed to test the properties of high-temperature superconductors like iron oxyarsenide which may result in better, cheaper MRI machines and high-voltage power lines. It could also be used for certain zero-gravity experiments and magnetic propulsion systems that could eliminate the need for traditional rockets down the line. Researchers have been able to create magnetic fields over 100 T for years, but if successful, this would be the first magnet that could repeatedly hold up to the strain. According to Greg Boebinger, director of the Magnet Lab, the magnet will have to resist Lorentz forces “equivalent to the explosive force of 200 sticks of dynamite packed into a volume of space the size of a marble.” [IEEE Spectrum Online via New Launches via DVICE]

The 10-foot-tall, 26-ton steel ball will spin at a high speed of 130kph at its equator when it’s fully operational. The idea is that our planet gets its magnetic field from the core, a quickly spinning ball of liquid metal, probably liquid iron. Because iron only melts at seriously high temperatures — this is the centre of the Earth we’re talking about, after all — Lathrop is using liquid sodium instead.

Hopefully, when it’s heated up and starts spinning, the liquid sodium will slosh around in some sort of “organised turbulence,” with an overall pattern emerging in how it sloshes around. This will make it like a tiny working model of the centre of the Earth, giving us a much better understanding of what goes on down there and just how it controls the magnetic field that makes all compasses point to the North Pole. [Neatorama via NPR]

[Animate Projects via Today and Tomorrow via Kottke]