NASA Unveils An Electric Field Around Earth That’s Just As Vital As Gravity

"Great invisible force" that influences the sky and drives polar winds.

Damjan

• Published in Technology
• August 31, 2024

In recent years, scientists have made a significant discovery about Earth's atmosphere, unveiling a new type of electric field that plays a crucial role in our planet’s environment.

This newly identified field, the ambipolar electric field, is as fundamental to Earth as gravity. It extends 150 miles above the planet and has been described as a "great invisible force" that influences the sky and drives polar winds.

These polar winds are essential in interacting with the jet streams, which, in turn, help shape most weather patterns across the globe. For a long time, scientists only theorized the existence of this field.

However, with the collaboration of scientists from the University of Leicester, a groundbreaking mission led by NASA has managed to send a rocket into the field and make direct measurements for the first time.

Before this discovery, Earth was known to have two primary energy fields: gravity and the magnetic field. Gravity keeps our atmosphere in place, while the magnetic field shields the planet from harmful cosmic radiation.

The ambipolar electric field, however, adds a new dimension to this understanding. Although it is fragile—measuring just 0.55 volts—it significantly impacts the scale height of the ionosphere, a region of the upper atmosphere between 30 and 600 miles above sea level.

The scale height indicates how rapidly the atmosphere thins out, and this field helps maintain a denser ionosphere at higher altitudes.

Dr. Glyn Collinson, leading the Endurance Mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, shared insights on the project: “Whenever spacecraft have flown over the poles of the Earth they have felt this supersonic wind of particles called the polar wind.

There must be some invisible force lurking there responsible for this outflow, but we’ve never been able to measure it because we didn’t have the technology.

This field is so fundamental to understanding the way the planet works. It’s been here since the beginning alongside gravity and magnetism. It’s been wafting particles to space and stretching up the sky since the beginning.”

Understanding this field is crucial for comprehending Earth's atmospheric dynamics and spotting potentially habitable planets elsewhere. The researchers believe that any planet with an atmosphere will likely possess an ambipolar field.

The ambipolar electric field.

Dr Collinson also said: “What makes Earth the special place that we all call home? One of the reasons may be to do with the energy fields that our planet creates. One of them is gravity. It’s important for life because it’s holding our atmosphere up.

The second field is the magnetic field that’s protecting our planet from the stream of particles that comes from the sun. Our rocket has discovered, and finally measured, number three. Now that we’ve finally measured it, we can begin learning how it’s shaped our planet as well as others over time.”

To study this field, the research team had to launch their rocket from one of the world’s most northerly locations, Ny-Alesund in Svalbard, Norway.

This site, situated just a few hundred miles from the North Pole, is uniquely positioned to allow rockets to pass through the polar wind and gather the necessary data. Endurance's mission pays homage to Ernest Shackleton’s legendary 1914 Antarctic voyage.

The rocket carried out experiments that showed hydrogen ions, the most prevalent particles in the polar wind, are affected by this new electric field. Remarkably, this field exerts a force 10.6 times stronger than gravity, enough to propel these ions upwards into space at supersonic speeds.

The results of this groundbreaking study were published in the journal Nature. The discovery of this ambipolar electric field opens up new avenues for understanding how Earth’s atmosphere and energy fields interact. It also raises intriguing possibilities about the characteristics of other planets with atmospheres.

This electric field is 'as important as gravity' surrounding Earth.

Ny-Alesund in Svalbard, Norway, was the entry point for scientists to study the new electric field.

As researchers continue to explore and measure this newly discovered field, they hope to gain deeper insights into how such energy fields have shaped Earth and other planetary bodies over time. This discovery not only enriches our knowledge of Earth’s atmospheric systems but also holds the potential to influence the search for life on other planets.

Damjan