Bipolar Wind 2

Posted on January 25, 2006 in Fact-Dropping Mania Stigma

Out there, in the stuff of stars and in stars themselves, a bipolar wind blows. I became aware of this galactic instability when I sought information about the relationship between my disorder and the intense winds ripping clouds, trees, and wood structures into rag-shaped pieces and splinters. The excavation took me through many layers of Google’s knowledge base. On page 13, I found the answer in an article about “Stellar Wind” from families.com :

Many young stars show bipolar outflows, which are two streams of material blowing away from the star in opposite directions. They usually occur in the birth of stars more massive than the sun. The bipolar outflow stage only lasts about 10,000 years or so, but during that time we see a strong stellar wind from the newly forming star. Why is the outflow bipolar? One theory suggests that the outflow is bipolar because an equatorial disk of material surrounding the star constrains the wind to flow out from the two polar regions. This disk may be the material that will eventually form planets around the star. Another possibility is that the star’s magnetic field forces the outflow into a direction perpendicular to the equatorial disk. The study of stellar winds from newly forming stars will eventually provide us with clues to help us understand how the sun and solar system formed.

Out there in the universe, there’s a creative force called a “bipolar wind”. Like us, it leaves the usual course of existence, bounding out into places that ordinary storms do not go. Its poems are planets. The substance of suns and the bipolar winds spin out worlds. Just like the collisions in our heads bring song, beautiful words, and light of the strangest sort.