06-21-2014, 07:48 AM
The funding is very much nationalistic. The E in E-ELT is for European. TMT is mostly American with partners. They are definitely in competition and discoveries are the points. The Eurozone is going all out to outcompete the US on all levels, including putting up their own positioning satellites, taking away satellite launch business, and already schooled American physics withe CERN collider, now planning an even bigger linear collider. Discoveries are shared but after being first to publish.
North and south are relative reference frames used for magnetic poles. From the Earth perspective, the North pole occupies the north hemisphere, the south pole the south hemisphere. The sun has a north and south pole, although they recently flipped. The Earth's magnetic field is weakening rapidly, which happens prior to a geomagnetic reversal, when magnetic south becomes north and north becomes south (not the Earth flipping physically). The last time this happened was 780,000 years ago and all indications are that this is a reversal, the poles are drifting and the field weakens down to zero just before reversing. Computer simulations are providing surprises and indicate this it may take less than 100 years for the poles to flip:
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75...nal624.jpg
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27941557
Swarm mission makes magnetic maps
"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"
North and south are relative reference frames used for magnetic poles. From the Earth perspective, the North pole occupies the north hemisphere, the south pole the south hemisphere. The sun has a north and south pole, although they recently flipped. The Earth's magnetic field is weakening rapidly, which happens prior to a geomagnetic reversal, when magnetic south becomes north and north becomes south (not the Earth flipping physically). The last time this happened was 780,000 years ago and all indications are that this is a reversal, the poles are drifting and the field weakens down to zero just before reversing. Computer simulations are providing surprises and indicate this it may take less than 100 years for the poles to flip:
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75...nal624.jpg
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27941557
Swarm mission makes magnetic maps
"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*