A history of the solar wind concept

Abstract

One presumes that the supersonic solar wind has been blowing since the formation of the Solar System, providing the dynamical plasma and magnetic field throughout interplanetary space. It appears that the early massive solar wind and simultaneous strong solar magnetic fields carried away the initial angular momentum of the young Sun during the first 3 +108 years or so, leaving the leisurely 25-day equatorial rotation period that we see today (***Schatzman 1959, 1973; Biermann 1973). Nowadays the tenuous wind carries no significant angular momentum or mass from the Sun, but it continues to be the dominating condition in interplanetary space, providing the outward sweeping spiral magnetic field, impacting the terrestrial magnetosphere, drastically reducing the intensity of the galactic cosmic rays, and pushing the interstellar gas and galactic magnetic field out beyond the farthest planets. The consequences for the terrestrial environment are profound, but not immediately obvious to us who dwell at the surface of Earth. So the history of the thoughts leading to the recognition of the solar wind extends back more than two millennia. Progress has been paced largely by the development of physics from the davs of Gilbert (1544–1603) and Galileo (1562–1642).