1

This is somewhat out of my comfort zone, and therefore I may not be using the correct terminology. Basically, there are some promoters of a certain woo, that claim solar wind H+ can combine with O-. Now, I have seen it said that this is impossible. That would be my view also. The H+ would be travelling at an average solar wind speed of ~ 400 km/s. I know that the energy (if that's the right term) of the H+ is ~ 1 keV. The O- is essentially stationary. Can anybody enlighten me on this, or provide a link to something that details the process. I have searched, to no avail. TIA.

honeste_vivere
  • 15,592
castrogiovanni
  • 11

1 Answers1

0

The dissociation energy for the O–H bond is < 5 eV, which is generally less than the temperature (e.g., see https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/179057/59023) of both the electrons and ions in the solar wind. The typical solar wind speed is ~350 km/s (e.g., see https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/17899/13663), but ranges from ~250-800 km/s (ignoring transients like coronal mass ejections).

Now, I have seen it said that this is impossible.

I think a, perhaps, more important issue is the unlikelihood of observing $O^{-}$ in the ambient solar wind.

I doubt the recombination is impossible (i.e., I am sure there is a finite probability), but based upon energy alone it certainly appears to be very unlikely.

Community
  • 1
honeste_vivere
  • 15,592
  • Thanks for the reply h_v. TBH, the aforementioned woo is so silly as to be dismissed by other considerations. To be more specific, it is one of the 'Electric Universe' fantasies about comets. In a nutshell, some sort of electrical woo causes O- to be released from the comet. The H+ from the solar wind then combines with said O-, to form OH. This then somehow becomes the H2O observed at comets. It is easily dismissed on numbers alone, i.e. there is nowhere near enough H+ nor O- to form the amount of H2O seen. However, it'd be nice to have yet another nail to hammer into their coffin. – castrogiovanni Jan 21 '17 at 23:13
  • @castrogiovanni - Ah, okay... I suppose that we have actually observed $H_{2} O^{+}$ at comets (i.e., from ablation/sublimation followed by ionization) is out of their realm of consideration as well? – honeste_vivere Jan 21 '17 at 23:25