Wow, it's funny how much crap I got from this thread, especially since I didn't say that the magnetosphere is the only thing that causes gravity. Go back and read my post again (and no, I didn't edit it, it's dated) and you'll see that I said that yes, mass does have something to do with it... but not everything. And FYI, since you apparently haven't reached this page in your high school science book, earth's magnetosphere is the second most powerful magnetic force in our solar system... second only to the sun;s magnetosphere, which reaches as far out as pluto. Read something yourselves before you contest what someone says.
The theory about ions is pretty much the most popular theory right now, and has been since it was discovered in 1999. True, it is a theory, but at work I'm *constantly* re-writing papers on this subject. In terms of volcanoes, I learned all of that from the discovery channel. In terms of astro-physics and geology, I learned all of this in college at Binghamton University.
I admit, I was wrong about the sun being a white dwarf, but I said in that post that I wasn't sure... it is a dwarf, however, and not much bigger.
The sun is a yellow dwarf... hence us living in one of the smallest solar systems we've identified, using HST imaging and terra-based observatories. It's basically what is known as a G2V main sequence star, the largest of the dwarf stars but still a dwarf nevertheless. There are larger stars, there are smaller stars... our sun is sort of in the middle of the road. the coronas on the sun's surface are shooting through the sun's photosphere in a helix form, which is proof that the sun WILL in fact weaken before it gets stronger. We've known this since 1992 and we saw more evidence in 2001 while observing the Jupiter moons Callisto and Ganymede... changes in their orbital balance supported evidence of the sun's dying. Just because your text books in school claimed it doesn't mean it was right, people: Science is an ever-evolving art that changes over time as we learn more about how things work.
Oh, and just to keep anyone from calling me silly names, I went and got evidence to support my claim. I would have done this earlier, but I didn't think people were this under-educated and I'd assumed you would have gone out to do your own research. But hey, you're right, I don't know what I'm talking about... I'm just a college graduate who attended space camp and writes papers on this subject for a living. What would I know.
I tried to get the most simplistic links so you can understand what they're talking about, since apparently certain people haven't read much:
The sun:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/stars/startypes.shtml
The earth's core and rotation (rotation is essential to gravity, lets not forget... I assume you know this, though):
http://www.phy6.org/earthmag/dynamos2.htm
geomagnetism as it relates to other planets with a useful chart if you know how to read it:
http://www.phy6.org/earthmag/mill_8.htm
This final link explains exactly what I said the sun will do... it'll get weak, THEN it will expand (not before we have a very serious ice age though), and then it will die down. It gets weak before it expands... proof is a beautiful thing:
http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/sun.html
Sorry if I sound anal in this post but there's nothing that I hate more than people telling me I'm wrong and full of BS when I know for a fact that I'm right. And no, this stuff isn't elementary... most of the people in here have no clue what we're talking about, hence them not commenting on it. Obviously, neither do the two of you, since this is the sort of stuff you'd learn your first year in college if you take courses that relate to this.
- Matt
(edit: had to fix the links... forgot to add the href's)
"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
