NASA has discovered the Earth's electric field after 60 years of searching: why it is important for the planet

Scientists have finally discovered an invisible force orbiting the Earth. It was found 60 years after the first hypothesis about its formation was put forward.

The field, called the "polar wind," explains how our planet's atmosphere flows easily and quickly from the north and south poles and may have played a role in the formation of our planet's thin upper atmosphere. Experts say that this discovery is as important for the Earth as gravity and the magnetic field, Space.com writes.

"This field is so fundamental to understanding how our planet works – it was here from the beginning, along with gravity and magnetism. Even though it's weak, it's incredibly important –it counteracts gravity and practically lifts the sky," said Glyn Collinson, principal endurance researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

The hypothesis of the existence of an unknown force was first put forward more than 60 years ago. Several spacecraft flying over the Earth's poles in the late 1960s discovered a stream of particles from the atmosphere flying out into space at supersonic speeds. Scientists knew that sunlight causes particles to escape from the atmosphere into space, "like steam evaporating from a pot of water." However, the particles detected by these spacecraft showed no sign of being heated.

In 2016, Glyn Collinson and his colleagues began developing sensors for the launch of the Endurance international probe rocket. In May 2022, one of the suborbital rockets, equipped with eight specialized instruments, was launched from the Svalbard rocket range in Norway, just a few hundred miles from the North Pole. This location provided the rockets with an ideal vantage point to study the unique atmospheric phenomenon.

According to the data collected, the scientists found that the field starts about 250 kilometers above the surface, where atoms in the atmosphere are divided into negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions, which are more than 1800 times heavier than electrons. According to NASA, given their opposite electric charges, an electric field is formed that "binds them together" counteracting the continuous pull of gravity and allowing some particles to escape space in the process.

The researchers found that hydrogen ions, which are abundant in the polar wind, experience an external push from the field that is 10.6 times stronger than gravity.

It was found that oxygen ions, which are heavier than their hydrogen counterparts, also receive a velocity boost from the polar wind. "It's like this conveyor belt that lifts the atmosphere into space," Collinson emphasized.

Because the polar wind is driven by dynamics within the Earth, scientists expect it to be present on other planets, including Venus and Mars.

"This field is a fundamental part of how the Earth works. And now that we've finally measured it, we can start asking some of these bigger and more perplexing questions," Glyn Collinson summarized the study.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!