
Originally Posted by
Forsaken
More misleading sensationalist journalism. These are like magnetic pipelines, they carry charged particles from the sun to the earth, not instantaneously, but just like a pipe. It's not something where matter goes in one side and appears on the other instantly, even the charge particles don't transverse this instantly, they just follow flux lines from the sun, and hit a spot where the sun's flux lines merge into the earth's, and then funnel down earth's flux lines into the atmosphere. That spot is what they're calling a "portal", it's a portal like a port hole in a boat, not like a stargate, sorry.
The trouble here is the way the word "portal" has become loaded with sci-fi connotations, while the scientists meant it only in the original way, an "opening" or "doorway", not some magical instantaneous transport. The journalists simply have exploited this fact to sensationalize the findings and draw more page/video hits.
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