They form every eight minutes, and the sun is about eight light-minutes away. I know where I'd start if I was trying to explain why it happens every eight minutes.

Of course, I'm sure the people doing this are looking into that.

Interesting.

They might not be.

The magnetic interaction between Jupiter and the Sun is stronger than between earth and the sun, so one might go looking for flux transfer events between Jupiter and the sun with a period of 43.2 minutes (the time it takes for light from the sun to reach Jupiter).

If every 8 minutes a wide (?) beam of high energy particles shoots through the entire planet, rolling from the equator through to the poles, then wouldn't you expect to notice some effects on the ground in populated areas? Compasses getting wacky, I dunno, but not nothing?

So we have portals, but where's the cake?

There is no cake, the cake is a lie!

These are the things dreams are made of.

It's very interesting physics, but not exactly magical. One can think of it as magnetic field lines connecting or disconnecting between the earth and the sun. Charged particles, like in the solar wind, follow this field lines, and so there's a lot of particles transferred. Additionally, the particles themselves are rotating, and 'lock in' magnetic flux, so they transport magnetic flux between the sun and the earth, too.

A nice reminder that there is much to learn about this world. There is far too little humility in science (and I speak as one who aspires to make a career in academic fields).

Completely agree. Maybe scientific research needs the equivalent of angel investors, or maybe just rich patrons, because investors tend to be impatient, etc. We need to go back to the days of great experimentalists like Rayleigh, Faraday, etc. The publish or perish way of working does not advance science most of the time.Scientists resort to all sorts of tricks to stay afloat. I remember reading somewhere that 80% of papers published in even reputed jounals like Physical Review Letters do not advance our understanding by a millimeter. It's wonderful to read stuff like this.

I think that the supposed lack of humility in science is because far too many of them have to deal with political attacks from people who don't understand basic science.