Free Republic

The European Space Agency’s Swarm constellation flew into space on Friday (Nov. 22) on a quest to understand more about the Earth’s magnetic field. Around the same time, ESA put out a few videos explaining why the magnetic field is important. This one explains that the magnetic field has weakened over the past few years, while the north pole has shifted direction. “In fact, a whole pole reversal is possible,” the narrator says. “It happened last 780,000 years ago at the very beginning of human history. But cavemen didn’t have mobile phone networks, GPS networks or power supplies.” If a...

A theory of what might be happening The working theory in all this, at least for the birds, is that deadly space clouds are reaching into the lower atmosphere and killing these birds in flight, after which the birds fall to the ground. The reports of the birds experiencing "blunt trauma" are likely from the birds hitting the ground. What, exactly, would be found in these deadly space clouds that might be killing the birds? One possibility is that these clouds might be moving along with gaps in the magnetosphere that would invite deadly radiation to "fry" the birds in...

An airport in Tampa, Florida, has had to temporarily close its runways to keep up with Earth's magnetic north pole, which is drifting toward Russia at a rate of 40 miles per year. Fox News reports that the international airport was forced to adjust the signs on its busiest runway Thursday because pilots depend on the magnetic fields to navigate. The runway will be closed until Jan. 13, and will re-open with new taxiway signs that indicate its new location on aviation charts, the Tampa Bay Tribune reports. Paul Takemoto, a spokesman for the FAA, says the Earth's magnetic fields...