Earth’s magnetic field is generated by a 2,000 km thick outer core of liquid iron and nickel that surrounds the planet’s solid inner core. The axis of the earth’s internal magnet shifts ...

Imagine waking up one morning to a world where compasses point south instead of north, where auroras shimmer across the ...

Such reversals in the Earth's magnetic field, they'd tell you, are, roughly speaking, as common as ice ages. That is, they're terrifically infrequent by human standards, but in geologic terms they ...

NASA's THEMIS mission proves a 45-year-old theory that the outer boundary of Earth's magnetic field vibrates like a drum. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of ...

During a brief but dramatic chapter in Earth's history about 41,000 years ago, the planet’s magnetic field nearly collapsed.

Back in 1832, the celebrated British physicist, Michael Faraday, carried out a set of experiments designed to answer a tantalizing question: could electricity be generated by Earth's rotation through ...

The Earth's magnetic field quietly supports life on the planet and now, for the first time, its invisible powers have been used to create new nanoparticles and materials.

Geophysicist Daniel Lathrop wants, among other things, to use it to predict when the Earth’s magnetic field will next reverse. Over the course of our planet’s history, the field has flipped ...

Likewise, a wire passing through a magnetic field creates an electric current within the wire. This is the basic principle that allows electric motors and generators to operate. In the Earth (see ...

The strength of Earth’s magnetic field dropped to just 10% of its current level, while the magnetic poles wandered far from their usual locations. For about 300 years, the magnetic fi ...