2997: Solar Protons

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Solar Protons

Title text: If any of you want to meet some cool local oxygen atoms, I can introduce you!

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a BOT RUNNING ON PROTONS INSTEAD OF ELECTRONS. Educational comment about aurora added 10/11 (MM/DD) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This comic is referencing the solar storm that hit the Earth on Thursday night before the comic. A result of the storm was that northern lights were visible across much of the northern United States, including Massachusetts where Randall lives. The northern lights normally occur much farther north, making this a rare and spectacular occurrence. The rare color background of this panel is an idealized depiction of the northern lights.

The solar protons referenced are hydrogen nuclei ejected from the sun after their electrons were stripped. Since most hydrogen atoms are just a single proton and electron pair, once the electron is removed, the resulting ion is just a proton. These protons, being positively charged, interact with Earth's magnetosphere, and the resulting excitation of atoms in the atmosphere causes them to emit light in the form of aurora. In the northern hemisphere the aurora is called aurora borealis (Latin for "northern dawn") and in the southern hemisphere it is called aurora australis (Latin for "southern dawn").

Here, Beret Guy takes on the task of giving the protons a cordial welcome to Earth, where they will spend the foreseeable future. He has set up a sign to welcome them, presumably because he normally does not see the northern lights. His sign notes that they will love being part of the atmosphere, since if the light of the aurora is being emitted it means that the protons are interacting with other atoms in the atmosphere. The sign also invites them to try creating water. Water consists of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms sharing an electron each with the oxygen. Since the solar protons are just hydrogen nuclei, they can form water by interacting with oxygen atoms or hydroxide ions (OH^-). Scientists believe that solar wind frequently creates water by interaction of the hydrogen nuclei with oxygen. However, the mechanism proposed involves solar wind first creating hydroxide from compounds in asteroids and space dust, and then another proton joining to make water. As most of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere consists of O₂ molecules (two bound oxygen atoms), it is not clear if solar protons could create water in the atmosphere at the same time as the northern lights, as opposed to via various other intermediate atmospheric/geological/biological interactions which might take up hydrogen (ionised or otherwise).

Beret Guy is repeating two common misconceptions about aurora: that they are created directly by solar energetic particles, and that they are dominated by protons. Most auroras are caused by electrons, and these electrons are mostly already trapped over the long term in Earth's magnetosphere (although many of them originated in the solar wind at some point). The interaction of the solar wind's magnetic field with Earth's magnetosphere can create strong electric fields parallel to the magnetic field lines near the poles, and these electric fields energize the electrons and accelerate them into the atmosphere, where their interactions with oxygen and nitrogen molecules create the emission lines of the aurora. It's not apparent if the misconceptions are Beret Guy's or Randall's.

The title text references water formation by saying that Beret Guy can introduce the solar protons/hydrogen nuclei to cool oxygen atoms. In reality hydrogen nuclei from the solar wind do not need an introduction,^{[citation needed]} but instead, due to their great speed, form bonds with oxygen when they impact oxygen or hydroxide.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[Colorful aurora in the starry night sky, with colors ranging from red at the top to green at the bottom]

[Black silhouette of Beret Guy standing on a grassy field, next to a sign to the right that reads (in light-greenish text on black):]

Welcome Solar Protons!

You'll love being part of our atmosphere!

There's so much to do here. Try forming water!

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Discussion

cute and wholesome 😊 Caliban (talk) 17:29, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Re, "idealized depiction": does this mean it's not a real photo? Is it AI? It would be nice to know the source, if possible. 162.158.175.99 17:57, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

tfw you forget Randall Munroe is an artist 162.158.103.90 19:50, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

It's an easy mistake... 141.101.109.166 07:28, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

Seriously tho, when he does to art its great, he should try it more often SomeRandomNerd (talk) 02:11, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

I'm reminded once again of the opening scenes in Jumanji: the first set of children see the pieces move by themselves and conclude "it must be magnets"; then a generation later, the conclusion is "it must be microchips". Such is the success of the current marketing around LLMs and similar that "it must be AI" feels like a more natural conclusion than "that's nice artwork"! See also 1838: Machine Learning. - IMSoP (talk) 14:03, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

3D stick figure is peak blursed 172.70.210.235 18:22, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Um, I feel the "Beret Guy is repeating two common misconception about aurora..." etc. paragraph is a bit unjust. The comic doesn't say anywhere that the solar protons are the aurora, nor how exactly they cause it. If the comic depicted a huge smoke cloud, and the sign read something like "Welcome flames! You'll love devouring our area!", would you also write about Randall wrongly thinking that all fires come with smoke? My guess is that most laypeople's understanding of auroras is too vague to be a misconception, at about like "This has something to do with stuff from the sun, right?" => I'd suggest to keep the explanation about the science of auroras, but delete the guesswork about Beret Guy's or Randall's purported misconceptions. Transgalactic (talk) 22:13, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

If it is a misconception then it is actually a bit sad that Randall promotes it if he knew this to be false... So I think leaving in that it is a misconception is important. And also to mention we do not actually know if Randall knows this himself. I would guess he does, in which case the misconception is Beret Guys. This should be in the explanation. --Kynde (talk) 06:15, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

My point was: The comic does not say anything about the physical process. It just shows an aurora and a sign that implies that there are solar protons arriving on Earth when there is an exceptionally huge and bright aurora. Which is correct. The comic simply doesn't say how exactly the solar protons trigger processes that create auroras. So, I agree that misconceptions about auroras should be mentioned along with the correct physics. But attributing the misconceptions to Beret Guy or Randall seems unfair because the comic simply doesn't say anything about that. Transgalactic (talk) 23:39, 4 November 2024 (UTC)