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Weak spot in magnetic field may be caused by an ancient planet buried inside the Earth

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(Planet Today) There is a weak spot in the Earth’s magnetic field, and some scientists believe it may have been caused by the remnants of an ancient planet that impacted the Earth billions of years ago.

(Article by Arsenio Toledo republished from NaturalNews.com)

The Earth has a protective geomagnetic field that shields the planet from deadly solar radiation. This field is generated by a process that starts 2,000 miles below the surface of the planet, in the Earth’s outer core.

In the outer core, there is a gigantic mass of liquid iron swirling around. This generates the magnetic field that stretches from the outer core up to the space surrounding the Earth.

This swirl is generated by a process known as convection. Hotter and lighter material from the core rises into the mantle above, and cooler and denser material sinks into the core below.

But there’s a problem here. The convection process is being disrupted by an unknown mass between the core and mantle underneath southern Africa. This disruption is weakening the strength of the magnetic field above it, which led to the creation of the area known as the South Atlantic Anomaly.

The South Atlantic Anomaly stretches from South America to southern Africa. The magnetic field in this area is a lot weaker. Higher quantities of charged solar particles can pass through the anomaly and enter the Earth.

This can potentially cause computers and other electronics to malfunction. Satellites and spacecraft that pass over it can experience difficulties when they are in the area.

The origin of this “dent,” as NASA informally refers to it, is unknown. But some scientists believe that the anomaly was created by the remains of a protoplanet known as Theia colliding with the Earth around 4.5 billion years ago.

Shards of Theia may be embedded in the Earth’s mantle

A team of scientists from Arizona State University led by Qian Yuan, a graduate student, came up with the hypothesis that, underneath the area where the South Atlantic Anomaly is, lies one of two gigantic underground blobs of dense material. Each blob is thought to be “millions of times larger than Mount Everest in terms of volume,” according to Yuan.

The team believes the blob underneath southern Africa could be one of the shards of Theia that was left underneath the Earth’s crust after the collision.

These two large blobs are buried around 1,800 miles underneath the surface of the Earth, according to Julien Aubert, an expert on geomagnetism from the Paris Institute of Earth Physics. Aubert believes it is possible that one of these blobs is to blame for the anomaly.

According to his team’s hypothesis, after Theia crashed into the Earth, two parts of the protoplanet may have sunk and been preserved in the deepest part of the Earth’s mantle, creating the blobs we see today.

These blobs, known as large low-shear-velocity provinces, are between 1.5 to 3.5 percent denser than the Earth’s mantle. They are also significantly hotter.

According to Yuan’s theory, whenever these blobs get involved in the convection process, they disrupt the regular flow of material to and from the mantle and the core by leading the mass of iron under southern Africa to swirl in a different direction.

The orientation of the Earth’s magnetic field depends on which way this mass of iron is moving. For the magnetic field to remain strong and stable, all of it must be oriented the same way. The southern African blob is causing the iron to deviate from its regular pattern, thus weakening the overall integrity of the magnetic field.

Yuan’s theory isn’t perfect. Christopher Finlay, a geophysicist at the Technical University of Denmark raised the important question of why there isn’t a similar anomaly with the second blob, which is underneath the southern and central Pacific Ocean. Scientists are still working on figuring out the answers.

Learn more about the Earth’s magnetic field by reading the latest articles at Space.news.

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“Alien bases” may be hiding off the coast of Alaska, researchers say

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An organization of civilian volunteers dedicated to the study of
unidentified flying objects (UFOs) has issued a statement based on
decades of studying eyewitness reports. According to Mutual UFO Network,
“alien bases” may be hiding off the coast of Alaska, reports the-sun.com.

Researchers
say the deep waters in this region may hold something surprising. After
analyzing reports from the ship’s crew from 1945, they hypothesized
that alien objects could be lurking underwater, off the coast of the
state.

Alleged sightings of alien spacecraft nearly 80 years ago
have become a key point in research. Members of the organization believe
that UFOs move over water and may have “bases.”

Researchers
allege crew members on a U.S. Army transporter ship sailing past Island
Adak saw a massive UFO sized 150 to 200 feet emerge from the water.
Although these reports are nowhere to be found, UFO enthusiasts believe
the unidentified flying vehicles likely were used to commute to
different supposed alien bases hiding in the deep waters.

As
the “secret reports” of the sailors aren’t available, investigators
have taken it upon themselves to unravel the mystery surrounding the
unidentified flying objects and they believe the ocean has alien bases
that humans aren’t aware of.

Enthusiasts claim that UFOs may be
using “underwater networks” or wormholes as superhighways to travel
between points in the universe. UFO researcher Johnny Enoch added that
such objects could serve as a vehicle for aliens.

There are also
theories that other places on Earth could serve as bases for alien life.
A mountain in Seoul, South Korea is believed to be hiding a UFO,
according to Dr. Steven Greer.

An episode of the series “The
Alaska Triangle” features satellite imagery that claims to show one of
the “alien bases” in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

Meanwhile,
another researcher featured in the program showed markings from the sea
bed that she claimed could have been roadways for aliens.

While
the mysteries of the ocean remain unsolved, researchers continue their
search, trying to unravel the mystery of what may be hiding in the
depths of the waters off the coast of Alaska.

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Enormous City-Size Comet Racing Towards Earth Grows ‘Devil Horns’ After Massive Eruption

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A volcanic comet the size of a mid-sized US city has
violently exploded for the second time in four months as it continues
racing toward the earth. And following the massive eruption, the cloud
of ice and gas sprouted what looked like a pair of gigantic devil horns.

The city-sized comet, named 12P/Pons-Brooks, is a cryovolcanic — or
cold volcano — comet. It has a solid nucleus, with an estimated diameter
of 18.6 miles, and is filled with a mix of ice, dust and gas known as
cryomagma. The nucleus is surrounded by a fuzzy cloud of gas called a
coma, which leaks out of the comet’s interior.

When solar radiation heats the comet’s insides, the pressure builds up
and the comet violently explodes, ejaculating its ice-cold innards into
space through seeping cracks in the nucleus’s shell.

Live Science report:
On Oct. 5, astronomers detected a large outburst from 12P, after the
comet became dozens of times brighter due to the extra light reflecting
from its expanded coma, according to the British Astronomical Association (BAA), which has been closely monitoring the comet 

Over the next few days, the comet’s coma expanded further and developed its “peculiar horns,” Spaceweather.com
reported. Some experts joked that the irregular shape of the coma also
makes the comet look like a science fiction spaceship, such as the
Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.

The unusual shape of the comet’s coma is likely due to an irregularity in the shape of 12P’s nucleus, Richard Miles, a BAA astronomer, told Live Science after the comet’s previous eruption.
The outflowing gas is likely being partially obstructed by a notch
sticking out on the nucleus, Miles said. As the gas continues to expand
away from the comet, the irregularity in the coma’s shape becomes more
defined and noticeable, he added.

12P is currently hurtling toward the inner solar system, where it
will be slingshotted around the sun on its highly elliptical 71-year
orbit around our home star — similar to the green comet Nishimura, which
pulled off a near-identical maneuver on Sept. 17

12P will reach its closest point to Earth on April 21, 2024, when it
may become visible to the naked eye before being catapulted back toward
the outer solar system. It will not return until 2095.

This is the second time 12P has sprouted its horns this year. On July
20, astronomers witnessed the comet blow its top for the first time in
69 years (mainly due to its outbursts being less frequent and harder to
spot during the rest of its orbit). On that occasion, 12P’s coma grew to
around 143,000 miles (230,000 km), which is around 7,000 times wider
than the comet’s nucleus.

It is unclear how large the coma grew during the most recent
eruption, but there are signs the outburst was “twice as intense” as the
previous one, the BAA noted. By now, the coma has likely shrunk back to
near its normal size.

As 12P continues to race toward the sun, there is a high probability
that we will witness several more major eruptions. It is possible that
those eruptions will be even bigger than the most recent one as the
comet soaks up more solar radiation, according to Spaceweather.com.

But 12P is not the only volcanic comet that astronomers are currently
monitoring: 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann (29P) — the most volatile volcanic
comet in the solar system — has also had several noticeable eruptions
in the last year.

In December 2022, 29P experienced its largest eruption in around 12 years, which sprayed around 1 million tons of cryomagma into space. And in April this year, for the first time ever, scientists accurately predicted one of 29P’s eruptions before it actually happened, thanks to a slight increase in the comet’s brightness in the lead-up to the icy explosion.

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