An archaeologist (Barry Watson) from 1000 years in the
future uncovers a romance novel written in our time. Curious, he journeys back
to find out about this thing called "love" from the novel's author (Sara Rue).
Set in New Orleans, shooting in Atlanta, Nov 2010-
Written by a307361[viaIMDb]
Sinopsis:
Un arqueólogo (Barry Watson) a partir de 1.000 años en el futuro revela una
novela romántica escrita en nuestro tiempo. Curioso, los viajes de regreso a
conocer esta cosa llamada "amor" de la autora de la novela (Sara Rue).
(FilmAffinity)
A favorite theme of science fiction is "the portal"--an
extraordinary opening in space or time that connects travelers to distant
realms. A good portal is a shortcut, a guide, a door into the unknown. If only
they actually existed....
It turns out that they do, sort of, and a
NASA-funded researcher at the University of Iowa has figured out how to find
them.
"We call them X-points or electron diffusion regions," explains
plasma physicist Jack Scudder of the University of Iowa. "They're places where
the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating
an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun's atmosphere 93
million miles away."
Observations by NASA's THEMIS spacecraft and
Europe's Cluster probes suggest that these magnetic portals open and close
dozens of times each day. They're typically located a few tens of thousands of
kilometers from Earth where the geomagnetic field meets the onrushing solar
wind. Most portals are small and short-lived; others are yawning, vast, and
sustained. Tons of energetic particles can flow through the openings, heating
Earth's upper atmosphere, sparking geomagnetic storms, and igniting bright polar
auroras.
NASA is planning a mission called "MMS," short for
Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, due to launch in 2014, to study the
phenomenon. Bristling with energetic particle detectors and magnetic sensors,
the four spacecraft of MMS will spread out in Earth's magnetosphere and surround
the portals to observe how they work.
Just one problem: Finding them.
Magnetic portals are invisible, unstable, and elusive. They open and close
without warning "and there are no signposts to guide us in," notes Scudder.
Actually, there are signposts, and Scudder has found
them.
Portals form via the process of magnetic reconnection. Mingling
lines of magnetic force from the sun and Earth criss-cross and join to create
the openings. "X-points" are where the criss-cross takes place. The sudden
joining of magnetic fields can propel jets of charged particles from the
X-point, creating an "electron diffusion region."
To learn how to
pinpoint these events, Scudder looked at data from a space probe that orbited
Earth more than 10 years ago.
"In the late 1990s, NASA's Polar spacecraft
spent years in Earth's magnetosphere," explains Scudder, "and it encountered
many X-points during its mission."
Because Polar carried sensors similar
to those of MMS, Scudder decided to see how an X-point looked to Polar. "Using
Polar data, we have found five simple combinations of magnetic field and
energetic particle measurements that tell us when we've come across an X-point
or an electron diffusion region. A single spacecraft, properly instrumented, can
make these measurements."
This means that single member of the MMS
constellation using the diagnostics can find a portal and alert other members of
the constellation. Mission planners long thought that MMS might have to spend a
year or so learning to find portals before it could study them. Scudder's work
short cuts the process, allowing MMS to get to work without delay.
It's a
shortcut worthy of the best portals of fiction, only this time the portals are
real. And with the new "signposts" we know how to find them.
The work of
Scudder and colleagues is described in complete detail in the June 1 issue of
the Physical Review Letters.
