We know about our North and South poles, but what about an East, West, or slightly-to-the-left pole? According to new research published in Geophysical Research Letters, around 1 billion years ago, that might have been a possibility.
In photographs taken in the spectrum of visible light, the Sun’s magnetic field is invisible. But this image wasn’t taken in our familiar, visible wavelengths, which is why the Sun’s magnetic field is both apparent and beautiful.
It may have not found the Big Bang's smoking gun, but the Planck mission in the South Pole has detected something important: The orientation of the galactic magnetic field—"this image represents the emission from dust, a minor but crucial component that pervades our Milky Way galaxy."
What you're seeing here are actually two aspects of our galaxy that your naked eye can't perceive: its temperature, and its magnetic field.
Aurora are beautiful, but the fire and smoke of Bárðarbunga step it up to gorgeous. The weekend kicked off with the Earth putting on a glorious display of green, blue, purple, and red, and countless photographers braved varied terrain to capture the ephemeral light for your viewing pleasure.
While we've previously looked at models of the Earth's magnetic field, now a trio of new satellites are monitoring the field. Here's a six-month timelapse of our turbulent field flickering in the interplanetary wind.
The ESA's SWARM trio of satellites are up-and-running. Here's a sweet animation put together using its first set of high-resolution scans showing the most recent changes in the magnetic field that protects our planet.
In some ways, it's an ominous pitch. By measuring the "magnetic fingerprint" of any building in the world, the Finnish company IndoorAtlas can conjure up a startlingly precise indoor map of any building. It's technology that sci-fi has dreamt of for decades. But instead of surveillance, it's being used for shopping.
Stunning ultraviolet images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope show bursts of light zipping around Saturn.
The Earth's magnetic field is the original forcefield, a wall of electromagnetic force that protects us from high-energy charged particles spewed by our sun during solar eruptions. The dance between our field and the sun is dynamic and beautiful.
Scientists at the University of Life Sciences in Prague have found that dogs are sensitive to Earth's magnetism. In fact, they're so sensitive that they poop aligned to the planet's magnetic field. I don't know what that means or why is it useful, but I find it fascinating.
The FAA can make the rules about air travel (god no inflight calls, please), but it's still beholden to the whims of earth's shifting magnetic field. Runways are named after their compass orientations to help pilots navigate. A changing magnetic field, however, means they now have to be renumbered.
Our planet's magnetic field periodically flips its direction, with the magnetic North and South Poles switching places. Such a reversal could wreak havoc on human society — and there's now reason to think one could happen soon... in geological terms, at least.
This trout looks guilty for a reason. It's hiding one of nature's most intriguing mysteries: the secret of magnetoception. For decades, behavioral experiments have suggested that a variety of animals possess this ability to sense — and navigate by — the Earth's magnetic fields, but identifying what, exactly, endows…
Turtles are one of many species that use their sense of Earth's magnetic field to navigate great distances. But the magnetic field is constantly drifting, and that can cause major confusion in such a long-lived species. Here's their ingenious solution.
If case you haven't seen it yet, here's the quantum levitation (or, more accurately, quantum locking) video that's taken the internet by storm in the last 36 hours.
A hundred years ago next week, superconductivity was discovered. Now we know electric charge can flow through ultra-cold objects without resistance. How better to celebrate this anniversary than with an awesomely crazy idea about ultra-hot superconductors forming in deep space?
Finally a story about birds that doesn't involve them falling out of the sky. We know that robins, like many other animals, uses the Earth's magnetic field to navigate, but we don't know how. The answer could be quantum mechanics.
Find out what Maxwell's Demon is, and how some physicists are channeling it.
So, that's another one the birds have on us. In addition to flight and colorful plumage, they're also equipped with magnetometer beaks that can sense magnetic fields and use them as a map. Yes, even chickens.
