How Wiretapping Helped Transform Astronomy

Early telegraph operators and WWI spies picked up some weird noises on radio waves. As it turned out, they were actually listening to plasma waves in Earth’s magnetic field lines! Get 10% off today —WITH FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING—by going to http://ridge.com/SCISHOW and use code “SCISHOW” at check out. Hosted by: Caitlin Hofmeister SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It s called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Avi Yashchin, Adam Brainard, Greg, Alex Hackman, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters ---------- Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your walls, cover your torso and hold your liquids? Check out our awesome products over at DFTBA Records: http://dftba.com/scishow ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast19jan_1/ https://plasmasphere.nasa.gov/discovery.html https://nationalmaglab.org/education/magnet-academy/watch-play/interactive/barkhausen-effect https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rsta.1953.0011 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whistlers/ https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/GL006i006p00511 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/212/4491/235/tab-pdf https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2006GL027019 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/JA095iA12p20967 http://vanallenprobes.jhuapl.edu/Spacecraft/index.php#EMFISIS https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/grl.50627 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/340/6129/186 Images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EE8_field_telephone_in_use.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whistler_radio_palmer_2004-07-23_T035528.png https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-listens-in-as-electrons-whistle-while-they-work https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/gallery/20130228-radiationbelts.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/gallery/rbsp-belts.html https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1250 https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/mission/grand-finale/overview/ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04433 https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/10722/saturn-plasma-and-radio-waves-as-seen-by-cassini/