http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org) —A trio of researchers working in Spain suggests in a paper published in the journal Nature Physics that the surface of some neutron stars might be "lumpy." Stars with such a surface might help explain, they say, the lack of pulsars with spin periods longer than 12 seconds. After running simulations in their lab, the researchers found that neutron stars with lumpy "pasta-like" surfaces would slow to a certain point then stop slowing with periods remaining constant at near to 12 seconds. http://phys.org/news290079111.html Physics Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:00:01 EST news290079111 Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth's centre to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. The scientists were even able to establish why the earlier experiment had produced a lower temperature figure. The results are published on 26 April 2013 in Science. http://phys.org/news286115346.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:00:25 EST news286115346 On a time scale of tens to hundreds of millions of years, the geomagnetic field may be influenced by currents in the mantle. The frequent polarity reversals of Earth's magnetic field can also be connected with processes in the mantle. These are the research results presented by a group of geoscientists in the new advance edition of Nature Geoscience on July 29, 2012. The results show how the rapid processes in the outer core, which flows at rates of up to about one millimeter per second, are coupled with the processes in the mantle, which occur more in the velocity range of centimeters per year. http://phys.org/news262785167.html Space & Earth Sun, 29 Jul 2012 13:00:36 EST news262785167 The presence of magnetized rocks on the surface of the moon, which has no global magnetic field, has been a mystery since the days of the Apollo program. Now a team of scientists has proposed a novel mechanism that could have generated a magnetic field on the moon early in its history. http://phys.org/news240058018.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:00:05 EST news240058018 The Earth's magnetic field has reversed many times at an irregular rate throughout its history. Long periods without reversal have been interspersed with eras of frequent reversals. What is the reason for these reversals and their irregularity? Researchers from CNRS and the Institut de Physique du Globe, France, have shed new light on the issue by demonstrating that, over the last 300 million years, reversal frequency has depended on the distribution of tectonic plates on the surface of the globe. This result does not imply that terrestrial plates themselves trigger the switch over of the magnetic field. Instead, it establishes that although the reversal phenomenon takes place, in fine, within the Earth's liquid core, it is nevertheless sensitive to what happens outside the core and more specifically in the Earth's mantle. This work is published on 16 October 2011 in Geophysical Research Letters. http://phys.org/news238667532.html Space & Earth Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:32:51 EST news238667532 Some three thousand kilometers below the surface of the Earth and with temperatures reaching those at the surface of the sun, the core of our home planet is no more within our physical reach today than it was back when Jules Verne undertook his fictional journey to the center of the Earth. Yet the mysteries still hidden there -- such as how the liquid core regenerates Earth's magnetic life force -- are of far greater interest to scientists today than to any science fiction writers past or present. With the help of increasingly sophisticated computer simulations, Earth scientists have created numerical models over the last decades which, in many respects, are remarkably successful at reproducing key aspects of the magnetic field. http://phys.org/news209906051.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Nov 2010 11:14:38 EST news209906051