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Study of Earth's magnetosphere began in 1600, when William Gilbert discovered that the magnetic field on the surface of Earth resembled that of a terrella, a small, magnetized sphere. In the 1940s, Walter M. Elsasser proposed the model of dynamo theory, which attributes Earth's magnetic field to the motion of Earth's iron outer core.
The magnetic field is generated by a feedback loop: current loops generate magnetic fields (Ampère's circuital law); a changing magnetic field generates an electric field (Faraday's law); and the electric and magnetic fields exert a force on the charges that are flowing in currents (the Lorentz force). [58]
The dense clusters of lines are within the Earth's core. [27] The magnetic field of the Earth, and of other planets that have magnetic fields, is generated by dynamo action in which convection of molten iron in the planetary core generates electric currents which in turn give rise to magnetic fields. [15]
Their field strengths are intermediate between those of the gas giants and those of the terrestrial planets, being 50 and 25 times that of Earth's, respectively. The equatorial magnetic field strengths of Uranus and Neptune are respectively 75 percent and 45 percent of Earth's 0.305 gauss. [ 16 ]
Magnetic north versus ‘true north’ At the top of the world in the middle of the Arctic Ocean lies the geographic North Pole, the point where all the lines of longitude that curve around Earth ...
Planetary magnetic poles are defined analogously to the Earth's North and South magnetic poles: they are the locations on the planet's surface at which the planet's magnetic field lines are vertical. The direction of the field determines whether the pole is a magnetic north or south pole, exactly as on Earth.
The Brunhes–Matuyama reversal, named after Bernard Brunhes and Motonori Matuyama, was a geologic event, approximately 781,000 years ago, when the Earth's magnetic field last underwent reversal. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Estimations vary as to the abruptness of the reversal.
A new study posits that the shifting of the magnetic poles possibly spelled the end of Neanderthals. Neanderthals died out 42,000 years ago as Earth’s magnetic poles flipped, scientists claim ...