Space
Weak spot in magnetic field may be caused by an ancient planet buried inside the Earth
(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.
Recently, a group of experts from Harvard University, led by physics
professor Avi Loeb, announced the possible presence of alien space
debris in Earth’s orbit, reports the Daily Star.
Leading
space research expert Professor Loeb is confident that the discovery of
such “interstellar objects could help expand our knowledge of possible
alien civilizations and technologies. A team of scientists is conducting
research to confirm that some of the objects in our orbit may be
connected to other star systems.
During an interview with Live
Science, Professor Loeb explained that these objects could enter the
solar system from interstellar space, defying Jupiter’s gravitational
pull and occupying limited orbits around the sun.
Some of them may
have technological origins similar to the probes sent by mankind into
interstellar space, such as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, Pioneer 10 and 11
and New Horizons.
However,
despite these interesting assumptions, Professor Loeb did not specify
what specific objects he was talking about. In his research report, he
notes that there could be “a significant number” of potentially
detectable objects in Earth’s orbit.
To confirm their assumptions,
the team of scientists uses computer simulations and the Vera Rubin
Observatory (Chile) with a high-resolution camera of 3.2 billion pixels.
This will allow for regular observations of the Southern sky and the
possibility of detecting several captured objects about the size of a
football field.
It is assumed that these interstellar objects passed through the
boundaries of the solar system and may carry unique information about
other civilizations and their technologies. If we could confirm the
origin of these objects, the mysteries that open before us, this would
be a real breakthrough in space exploration.
Professor Loeb
expresses hope that the new research will not only help expand our
knowledge of extraterrestrial technologies, but may also lead to the
discovery of new alien civilizations . Answers to such questions can be
of global significance and influence our understanding of the place of
mankind in the Universe.
And
while there are still many questions and assumptions, the study by
Professor Loeb and his team opens a new chapter in space exploration.
Each new discovery can be the key to deciphering the mysteries of the
cosmos and the possibility of encountering alien life forms.
Betelgeuse, a red giant on the brink of death, continues to show
unusual behavior. After the Great Blackout, which occurred in late 2019
and early 2020, the star became unusually bright. It is now the seventh
brightest star in the sky, while it normally ranks tenth. This has led
to speculation that Betelgeuse is preparing to explode in a
spectacularly large supernova.
However, scientists believe it’s too early to tell, and it’s likely
that this behavior is due to ongoing fluctuations after the Great
Blackout of 2019, and the star will return to normal within a decade.
Betelgeuse is one of the most interesting stars in the sky. It is
about 700 light-years from Earth and is a red giant in the last stage of
its life. It is also an unusual star for a red giant because it was
previously a monster blue-white O-type star, the most massive class of
stars.
Betelgeuse has changed its spectral type because it has almost
exhausted its hydrogen reserves. It now burns helium into carbon and
oxygen and has expanded to a gigantic size: about 764 times the size of
the Sun and about 16.5 to 19 times its mass.
Eventually it will run out of fuel to burn, become a supernova, eject
its outer material, and its core will collapse into a neutron star.
Before the Great Blackout, Betelgeuse also had periodic fluctuations
in brightness. The longest of these cycles is about 5.9 years and the
other is 400 days. But it seems that the Great Blackout caused changes
in these oscillations.
A new paper by astrophysicist Morgan McLeod of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has shown that the 400-day
cycle appears to have been halved. This pulsational cycle is probably
caused by expansion and contraction within the star. According to
simulations carried out by MacLeod and his colleagues, the convective
flow inside Betelgeuse may have risen and become material that separates
from the star.
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