A powerful engine roils deep beneath our feet, converting energy in the Earth's core into magnetic fields that shield us from the solar wind. Similar engines drive the magnetic activity of the sun, other stars and even other ...
General Physics
Oct 29, 2018
0
106
Contrary to what many people believe, outer space is not empty. In addition to an electrically charged soup of ions and electrons known as plasma, space is permeated by magnetic fields with a wide range of strengths. Astrophysicists ...
Plasma Physics
Nov 5, 2018
30
170
About 4.6 billion years ago, the solar system was little more than a tenuous disk of gas and dust. In the span of merely 10 million years, this soup evolved to form today's massive, complex planets. In the intervening period, ...
Space Exploration
Oct 11, 2012
16
0
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 ...
Space Exploration
Nov 9, 2011
9
2
New evidence from ancient lunar rocks suggests that an active dynamo once churned within the molten metallic core of the moon, generating a magnetic field that lasted at least 1 billion years longer than previously thought. ...
Space Exploration
Aug 9, 2017
0
162
At the heart of most celestial objects is a dynamo. The Earth's dynamo, spun to life in the molten metal core of our planet, generates a magnetic field that helps us find north and, perhaps more critically, shields us from ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 21, 2011
4
0
(Phys.org) —A multi-disciplinary team of international researchers has found evidence to suggest the moon's dynamo persisted until at least 3.6 billion years ago. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National ...
The universe is filled with magnetic fields. Understanding how magnetic fields are generated and amplified in plasmas is essential to studying how large structures in the universe were formed and how energy is divided throughout ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 11, 2021
7
251
Flows of molten metal can generate magnetic fields. This so-called dynamo effect creates cosmic magnetic fields, like those found on planets, moons and even asteroids. In the coming years, researchers are conducting a unique ...
General Physics
Mar 13, 2018
11
69
The massive, churning core of conducting liquids in stars and some planets creates a dynamo that generates the planetary body's magnetic field. Researchers aim to better understand these dynamos through computer simulations ...
General Physics
May 23, 2017
0
48
