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2024-11-11

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NASA discovers Earth's electrical field at last after 60-year search (www.space.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A long-sought invisible force wrapped around Earth has been detected more than half a century after it was first hypothesized.

The field, dubbed the "polar wind," explains how Earth's atmosphere escapes easily and rapidly above the north and south poles, and may have played a role in shaping our planet's thin upper atmosphere.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

NASA link: https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasa-discovers-long-sought-global-electric-field-on-earth/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Edit: ELECTRICAL field sorry

A long-sought invisible force wrapped around Earth has been detected more than half a century after it was first hypothesized.

99% chance I'm being an idiot here, but, compass?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

I think it means the electric field created within Earth's atmosphere that is responsible for lightning as opposed to the (electro)magnetic field which forms the magnetosphere around Earth and makes compasses work.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Magnetic field ≠ electric field

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Fucking magnets, how do they work?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Pure gumption

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Miracles!