(NLDO) - NASA said that the Earth is surrounded by a weak and invisible energy field called "dipole field".
In 1968, scientists described a phenomenon we can't see: Spacecraft flying over Earth's poles detected a supersonic wind of particles escaping from Earth's atmosphere.
The best explanation for this is that an unknown energy field is surrounding the planet, not a gravitational or magnetic field.
Now, NASA scientists have captured and measured it.
Earth taken from the International Space Station (ISS) - Photo: NASA
"It's called a dipole field and it's what causes chaos. It counteracts gravity and rips particles out of space," said astronomer Glyn Collinson from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Science Alert reported.
We have never been able to measure this before because we don't have the technology, according to Dr. Collinson.
So NASA built the Endurance spacecraft to search for this invisible energy source.
Endurance launched in May 2022, reaching an altitude of 768.03 km before returning to Earth with valuable, hard-earned data.
Beginning at an altitude of about 250 km, in a layer of the atmosphere called the ionosphere, intense ultraviolet and solar radiation ionizes atmospheric atoms, breaking apart negatively charged electrons and turning the atoms into positively charged ions.
The lighter electrons fly into space, while the heavier ions sink to the ground.
But the plasma medium tries to maintain charge neutrality, resulting in the appearance of an electric field between the electrons and ions to force them together.
We call that energy field a "dipole field" because it acts in both directions, with the ions providing a downward pull and the electrons providing an upward pull.
This process causes the atmosphere to swell. The increased altitude allows some of the ions to escape into space, resulting in the ion-carrying supersonic winds that spacecraft have recorded over the last century.
Compared to the magnetic and gravitational fields, the Earth's third energy field is very weak, so it is difficult to measure it.
According to NASA, Endurance measured a voltage change of just 0.55 V.
“Half a volt is hardly anything, about as strong as a watch battery,” says Dr Collinson, “but it is just enough to account for the extreme winds.”
This charge is enough to pull hydrogen ions with a force 10.6 times stronger than gravity, sending them into space at supersonic speeds measured at the Earth's poles.
Oxygen ions, which are heavier than hydrogen ions, are also lifted higher, increasing the density of the ionosphere at high altitudes by 271%.
More interestingly, we still don't know exactly how the dipole field has affected the Earth throughout history.
“Now that we have measured it, we can begin to understand how it shapes our planet and others over time,” said Dr Collinson.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/phat-hien-truong-nang-luong-la-dang-bao-vay-trai-dat-196240831064233628.htm
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