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Earth’s magnetic field surrounds our planet like an invisible force field - protecting life from harmful solar radiation by deflecting charged particles away. Far from being constant, this field is continuously changing. Indeed, our planet's history includes at least several hundred global magnetic reversals, where north and south magnetic poles swap places. So when’s the next one happening and how will it affect life on Earth? During a reversal the magnetic field won’t be zero, but will assume a weaker and more complex form. It may fall to 10 percent of the present-day strength and have magnetic poles at the...

Anyone watching a compass needle point steadily north might suppose that Earth’s magnetic field is a constant. It’s not. Researchers have long known that changes are afoot. The north magnetic pole routinely moves, as much as 40 km/yr, causing compass needles to drift over time. Moreover, the global magnetic field has weakened 10% since the 19th century. Earth’s magnetic field protects us from solar storms and cosmic rays. Less magnetism means more radiation can penetrate our planet’s atmosphere. Indeed, high altitude balloons launched by Spaceweather.com routinely detect increasing levels of cosmic rays over California. Perhaps the ebbing magnetic field over...

Why should be we worried about a polarity flip? The magnetic field protects us from harmful solar radiations and cosmic rays. If these start fading away, it may affect every living creature on Earth. An increase in radiation exposure may not only lead to serious health outcomes, but also some genetic disorders could occur. Some biologists even fear that direct exposure to harmful solar radiations may result in mass extinctions. Not only could some severe health consequence fallow the weakening of magnetic field. In a less concerning outcome, but still very worrisome it could lead to a severe disturbance in...

Since 2010, the best estimate of the age of Earth's magnetic field has been 3.45 billion years. But now a researcher responsible for that finding has new data showing the magnetic field is far older. John Tarduno, a geophysicist at the University of Rochester and a leading expert on Earth's magnetic field, and his team of researchers say they believe the Earth's magnetic field is at least four billion years old.

NASA’s magnetic field mission looking for green energy In addition to learning more about the magnetic field of the Earth, and the ubiquitous but hard to understand “magnetic reconnection,” NASA’s new MMS mission is also looking for ways to harness the power of magnetism, and produce clean energy. NASA’s MMS mission will investigate magnetic reconnection.Findings from this mission could lead to production of green energy from magnetism.Magnetic reconnection is ubiquitous in the cosmos, but it’s still poorly understood. After years of intensive planning, with countless days of engineering works, data analysis, and more, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Thursday successfully launched the...

Technicians work on NASA’s 20-foot-tall Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mated quartet of stacked observatories in the cleanroom at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., on May 12, 2014. Credit: Ken Kremer- kenkremer.com NASA’s first mission dedicated to study the process in nature known as magnetic reconnection undergoing final preparation for launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida in just under two weeks time. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is comprised of a quartet of identically instrumented observatories aimed at providing the first three-dimensional views of a fundamental process in nature known as magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is the process whereby...

“Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important drivers of space weather events,” said Jeff Newmark, interim director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Eruptive solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and geomagnetic storms all involve the release, through reconnection, of energy stored in magnetic fields. Space weather events can affect modern technological systems such as communications networks, GPS navigation, and electrical power grids.” The four MMS have been stacked on top of one another like pancakes, encapsulated in the payload fairing, transported to the launch pad, hoisted and mated to the top of the 195-foot-tall rocket.

A magnetic field shift is old news. Around 800,000 years ago, magnetic north hovered over Antarctica and reindeer lived in magnetic south. The poles have flipped several times throughout Earth's history. Scientists have estimated that a flip cycle starts with the magnetic field weakening over the span of a few thousand years, then the poles flip and the field springs back up to full strength again. However, a new study shows that the last time the Earth's poles flipped, it only took 100 years for the reversal to happen. The Earth's magnetic field is in a weakening stage right now....

“A geomagnetic reversal may happen sooner than expected,” says this article in Scientific American.