2997: Solar Protons

|< < Prev Comic #2997 (October 11, 2024) Next > >|

Solar Protons

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

Explanation

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 illustration of the northern lights.

The solar protons referenced are hydrogen nuclei ejected from the Sun. 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").

Note, however, that - contrary to some common misconceptions - auroras are only created indirectly due to the impact of solar particles, and only a small fraction of all auroras are triggered by solar protons from coronal mass ejections. 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. The comic merely implies that there must be solar protons arriving on Earth when there are such impressive northern lights in Beret Guy's home town, which seems likely.^{[citation needed]}

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 is happy to see the northern lights. His sign claims that they will love being part of the atmosphere, presumably because the protons are interacting with other atoms in the atmosphere if aurora lights are emitted. 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).

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

[A large mainly black panel is filled with colorful aurora that streaks upwards from the central part of the panel. The aurora if mainly red, orange and yellow light in the streaks that goes to the top of the panel and green in the broad band at the bottom part of the aurora. The band starts lower tot he left and moves higher towards the right. Behind the aurora is a starry night sky. Beret Guy is drawn as a black silhouette just left of the center beneath the aurora which he is looking up at. He is standing on a grassy field, next to a sign to his right. The sign is black with text in a light-greenish font:]

Welcome Solar Protons!

You'll love being part of our atmosphere!

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

 add a comment! ⋅  add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅  refresh comments!

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)