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The Moon isn't responsible for Earth's magnetosphere, rather our liquid iron core is.
by apparissus 10y ago
The Moon isn't responsible for Earth's magnetosphere, rather our liquid iron core is.
- ergothus 10y agoIsn't it not that we have such a core, but that the core MOVES that creates it? If so, I can imagine the Moon playing a role in that. That said "I can imagine" isn't terribly good science. Articles like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamo_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamo_theory don't make mention any role of the Moon, and googling around drowned out the actual question by talking about how the Moon might have once had a magnetosphere, along with articles about how smaller planets might be able to.
- throwaway5752 10y agoIf so, I can imagine the Moon playing a role in that It doesn't. The planet was spinning when it coalesced from a planetary nebula and conservation of angular momentum means it sped up as it coalesced. As the moon moves further away it _slows down_ the rotation of the planet.
- hawski 10y agoI stay corrected on accepted theories. I tried to find some discussion on this subject. I found this [1] quite recent paper (2016-03-31) that states that influence of Moon is necessary to maintain Earth's magnetosphere. Just food for thought. There are articles that quote this paper on the Web, but they have this suspicious date of 1st April (but paper was published day before) :) [1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X16301078 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X16...
- timlyo 10y agoThe moving core is created by radioactive material heating up the core and creating convection currents.