NASA Rocket Confirms Existence of Earth's Hidden Electric Field
2024-09-16
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1The American space agency NASA says it has confirmed the long-suspected existence of an electric field that surrounds Earth.
2A rocket named Endurance gathered the information that led to the confirmation.
3Endurance launched from Norway on May 11, 2022.
4The launch site was the closest possible to the North Pole.
5Endurance reached a top altitude of 768 kilometers.
6The rocket captured data on the electric field during its 19-minute flight before splashing down in the sea, off the coast of Greenland.
7NASA says that since the 1960s, spacecraft flying over Earth's poles have recorded collections of particles flowing from the planet's atmosphere into space.
8But the cause of these outflows long remained a mystery.
9Scientists lacked the technology and tools to confirm an electric field and further explore it.
10But the development in recent years of new observation methods and instruments led NASA to plan the Endurance mission.
11So the agency built the rocket and a new data instrument and planned the launch.
12NASA scientist Glyn Collinson, an expert in space instrument design, led the Endurance mission.
13Collinson explains in a video that scientists believe the electric field they searched for was one of three energy fields affecting Earth.
14The others are gravitational and magnetic. Scientists are calling the third energy field the "ambipolar electric field."
15A NASA statement says scientists believe the ambipolar field is an influential driver of the "polar wind."
16They described the wind as "a steady outflow of charged particles into space that occurs above Earth's poles."
17Scientists believe the ambipolar electric field counteracts some of the effects of gravity.
18This electric field lifts the charged particles in Earth's upper atmosphere "to greater heights than they would otherwise reach," NASA said.
19Scientists had theorized this electric field began at around 250 kilometers high.
20This is where atoms in our atmosphere break apart into negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions.
21This activity helps form a part of Earth's atmosphere known as the ionosphere.
22NASA noted the Endurance mission permitted researchers to successfully identify and measure "a planet-wide electric field thought to be as fundamental to Earth as its gravity and magnetic fields."
23A study describing the team's results recently appeared in the publication Nature.
24NASA said studying the ambipolar electric field is important because it "may have shaped our planet's evolution in ways yet to be explored."
25In addition, the agency said further study of this field can help scientists better understand other planets and possibly find ones with conditions that may support life.
26Leader Collinson said that, during the mission, the instrument on the rocket was able to measure an electrical voltage of 0.55 volts.
27He said this level is very low, about the same voltage used to power a watch battery.
28But, he noted that 0.55 volts was "just the right amount" to explain the outflows of particles driving the polar wind.
29Collinson said he finds the results "incredibly important" because the newly confirmed electric field can counter the effects of gravity and "basically lifts the skies up."
30He described the field as a kind of "conveyor belt that's lifting this atmosphere up into space."
31Alex Glocer is a project scientist for the Endurance mission and was a co-writer of the study.
32He said he agrees with those findings.
33"That's more than enough to counter gravity - in fact, it's enough to launch them upwards into space at supersonic speeds," Glocer said.
34Supersonic describes speeds that are greater than the speed of sound.
35The team said the study results suggest the ambipolar electric field also greatly increases the density of the ionosphere at higher atmospheric positions.
36Collinson said, "Any planet with an atmosphere should have an ambipolar field. Now that we've finally measured it, we can begin learning how it's shaped our planet as well as others over time."
37I'm Bryan Lynn.
1The American space agency NASA says it has confirmed the long-suspected existence of an electric field that surrounds Earth. 2A rocket named Endurance gathered the information that led to the confirmation. Endurance launched from Norway on May 11, 2022. The launch site was the closest possible to the North Pole. 3Endurance reached a top altitude of 768 kilometers. The rocket captured data on the electric field during its 19-minute flight before splashing down in the sea, off the coast of Greenland. 4NASA says that since the 1960s, spacecraft flying over Earth's poles have recorded collections of particles flowing from the planet's atmosphere into space. But the cause of these outflows long remained a mystery. Scientists lacked the technology and tools to confirm an electric field and further explore it. 5But the development in recent years of new observation methods and instruments led NASA to plan the Endurance mission. So the agency built the rocket and a new data instrument and planned the launch. 6NASA scientist Glyn Collinson, an expert in space instrument design, led the Endurance mission. 7Collinson explains in a video that scientists believe the electric field they searched for was one of three energy fields affecting Earth. The others are gravitational and magnetic. Scientists are calling the third energy field the "ambipolar electric field." 8A NASA statement says scientists believe the ambipolar field is an influential driver of the "polar wind." They described the wind as "a steady outflow of charged particles into space that occurs above Earth's poles." Scientists believe the ambipolar electric field counteracts some of the effects of gravity. 9This electric field lifts the charged particles in Earth's upper atmosphere "to greater heights than they would otherwise reach," NASA said. Scientists had theorized this electric field began at around 250 kilometers high. This is where atoms in our atmosphere break apart into negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions. This activity helps form a part of Earth's atmosphere known as the ionosphere. 10NASA noted the Endurance mission permitted researchers to successfully identify and measure "a planet-wide electric field thought to be as fundamental to Earth as its gravity and magnetic fields." A study describing the team's results recently appeared in the publication Nature. 11NASA said studying the ambipolar electric field is important because it "may have shaped our planet's evolution in ways yet to be explored." In addition, the agency said further study of this field can help scientists better understand other planets and possibly find ones with conditions that may support life. 12Leader Collinson said that, during the mission, the instrument on the rocket was able to measure an electrical voltage of 0.55 volts. He said this level is very low, about the same voltage used to power a watch battery. But, he noted that 0.55 volts was "just the right amount" to explain the outflows of particles driving the polar wind. 13Collinson said he finds the results "incredibly important" because the newly confirmed electric field can counter the effects of gravity and "basically lifts the skies up." He described the field as a kind of "conveyor belt that's lifting this atmosphere up into space." 14Alex Glocer is a project scientist for the Endurance mission and was a co-writer of the study. He said he agrees with those findings. "That's more than enough to counter gravity - in fact, it's enough to launch them upwards into space at supersonic speeds," Glocer said. Supersonic describes speeds that are greater than the speed of sound. 15The team said the study results suggest the ambipolar electric field also greatly increases the density of the ionosphere at higher atmospheric positions. 16Collinson said, "Any planet with an atmosphere should have an ambipolar field. Now that we've finally measured it, we can begin learning how it's shaped our planet as well as others over time." 17I'm Bryan Lynn. 18Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from NASA. 19______________________________________ 20Words in This Story 21pole - n. either part of an axis of a sphere and especially of Earth's axis 22counteract - v. the reduce a bad effect of something else 23fundamental - adj. relating to the most important or main part of something 24evolution - n. a gradual process of change and development 25battery - n. an object that provides electricity for things such as radios, toys, cars, etc. 26conveyor belt - n. a continuous moving piece of rubber or metal that is used to transport objects from one place to another