The earth’s own magnetic field offers a useful way to measure the age of rocks - information that can help unpack ancient events and aid our understanding of the present.
Mission control loses signal from Cassini.
NASA/Joel Kowsky
Are we headed to a magnetic reversal and all the global disruption that would bring? Enter archaeomagnetism. A look at the archaeological record in southern Africa provides some clues.
The Earth’s magnetic field is hugely important to our survival.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre/Flickr
A geomagnetic reversal may have a severe impact on humans.
ESA’s Swarm constellation reveals new rapid changes of our magnetic field, tied directly to the heart of our planet’s molten iron core.
ESA/ATG Medialab
Space research never stops and it seems neither do the surprises. On ABC Breakfast News I covered some huge results from the last few weeks. Be still my beating (magnetic) heart Earth’s magnetic field…
Spin, liquid – just add quantum.
Panom Pensawang/shutterstock.com
An artist’s illustration of Kappa Ceti whose stellar winds are 50 times stronger than our sun’s. Any Earth-like planet would need a magnetic field to protect its atmosphere if it was to stand a chance of hosting life.
M. Weiss/CfA
Geomagnetic storms can interact with particles near Earth, causing issues for satellites and other tech. Researchers send balloons 20 miles into the sky to figure out just what’s going on up there.
Our power grid infrastructure on Earth is more vulnerable to space weather than previously thought – with susceptibility in more regions and even during quiet geomagnetic periods.
The invisible force and visible effects of magnetism.
Hans Splinter
I have a confession: I’m obsessed with magnets. We rely on magnets every day, but seldom give them a second thought. There are magnets in your credit card, your cellphone, your car, microwave oven and…
A 3D visualisation of the plasma tubes conforming to the Earth’s magnetic field.
CAASTRO
Sound waves are made of particles called phonons. New research shows they’re affected by magnetic fields, with researchers able to steer heat magnetically.
Magnetic traces suggest iron crystals in the innermost core are aligned east-west, rather than north-south.
Lachina Publishing Services
The planet Earth’s inner core is not a single solid mass but comprised of two layers, and new evidence about the core’s composition from a team of US and Chinese geophysicists suggests that the innermost…
Time exposed photo of the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe Launch into the aurora.
Merrick Peirce
The aurora borealis lights up the Arctic night skies. Also called the Northern Lights, the phenomenon is the result of beams of charged particles tracing along the Earth’s magnetic field and entering the…
The many colours of visible light just part of what James Clerk Maxwell’s theory was to explain.
Flickr/laura peta
It’s hard to imagine life without mobile phones, radio and television. Yet the discovery of the electromagnetic waves that underpin such technologies grew out of an abstract theory that’s 150 years old…
Trains that use magnets to levitate above the tracks might sound like something from Back to the Future, but the concept of magnetic levitation has been around for many years. Maglev trains, which use…
Salmon use Earth’s magnetic field to create a large-scale mental map which they follow to find suitable feeding grounds, a study published today in Current Biology has found. The salmon are born in rivers…