Solar Wind

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2020

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the flow of particles from the outer region of the Sun which we observe in the Northern and Southern Lights, interacting with Earth's magnetosphere, and in comet tails that stream away from the Sun regardless of their own direction. One way of defining the boundary of the solar system is where the pressure from the solar wind is balanced by that from the region between the stars, the interstellar medium. Its existence was suggested from the C19th and Eugene Parker developed the theory of it in the 1950s and it has been examined and tested by a series of probes in C20th up to today, with more planned. With Andrew Coates Professor of Physics and Deputy Director in charge of the Solar System at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London Helen Mason OBE Reader in Solar Physics at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Fellow at St Edmund's College And Tim Horbury Professor of Physics at Imperial College London Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.8	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:07.3	There's a reading list to go with it on our website,
0:09.5	and you can get news about our programs if you follow us on Twitter
0:12.8	at BBC In Our Time.
0:14.7	I hope you enjoyed the programs.
0:16.6	Hello, the solar wind is matter,
0:18.4	blown from the sun out into the whole solar system
0:21.1	at up to 2 million miles per hour.
0:23.7	We noticed its impact when Earth's magnetic field
0:26.2	diverts it towards our poles for the northern and southern lights,
0:29.7	or when it makes comet tails, or when it damages electrical equipment.
0:33.6	It was Eugene Parker in 1957,
0:36.3	who theorized that matter was escaping from the sun's atmosphere into space,
0:40.3	and ever since we've been sending out probes to learn more about this phenomenon,
0:43.9	so fundamental to understanding life and the universe.
0:47.0	We admit it is just solar wind, Helen Mason OBE,
0:49.7	reader in solar physics at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
0:53.8	to University of Cambridge,
0:55.1	fellow at St Edmunds College,
0:56.8	Tim Horberry, Professor of Physics at Imperial College London,
0:59.8	and Andrew Coates,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.