Space
Giant mysterious magnetic waves emanate from the Earth’s core every seven years
It’s not very quiet inside the Earth. Deep below the surface, the planet is literally thundering with activity, from plate tectonics to convection currents that circulate through hot magma fluids.
Now scientists studying Earth satellite data have identified something inside the Earth that we have never seen before: a new type of magnetic wave that sweeps around the surface of our planet’s core every seven years.
This discovery can give an idea of how the Earth’s magnetic field is generated, and will allow us to understand the evolution of our planet, that is, the gradual cooling of the planetary interior. The team’s research has been published in PNAS.
“Geophysicists have long theorized about the existence of such waves, but it was believed that they occur on much longer time scales than our studies have shown,” says Nicolas Gillet, a geophysicist from the University of Grenoble-Alpes (France).
“Measurements of the magnetic field from instruments based on the surface of the Earth indicated that there was some kind of wave action, but we needed the global coverage offered by measurements from space to show what was actually happening.”
The Earth’s magnetic field has long been a subject of interest to scientists. Research to date shows that an invisible structure forms a protective “bubble” around our planet, trapping harmful radiation and atmosphere. But the magnetic field is not static. It fluctuates in strength, size, and shape, has features we don’t understand, and gradually weakens over time.
The European Space Agency’s Swarm orbiting satellites are three identical probes launched in 2013 that orbit the Earth to study activity inside the Earth. It was in this data that Gillet and his team found strange new waves.
They then looked at data from other ground-based and space-based observatories collected between 1999 and 2021 and found a pattern. These waves, known as magneto-Coriolis waves, are huge magnetic columns aligned along the Earth’s axis of rotation, strongest at the equator.
This fascinating finding opens a new window into a world we can never see. This mysterious wave oscillates every seven years and propagates westward at up to 1500 kilometers a year.
Their existence suggests that there may be other magneto-Coriolis waves with different oscillation periods that we cannot detect today due to lack of data.
For now, as the waves carry information about the medium they travel through, the new discovery could be used to explore the Earth’s interior in new ways – including the core, which is still hard to study.
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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