3 ms·
> One side effect of the magnetic field shift is slight but primarily beneficial: It can help shield Earth from galactic cosmic rays — high-energy subatomic par
by cko 2y ago
> One side effect of the magnetic field shift is slight but primarily beneficial: It can help shield Earth from galactic cosmic rays — high-energy subatomic particles that travel at near light speed and can damage spacecraft and harm orbiting astronauts who are outside Earth's protective atmosphere.
Buried three sentences from the end of the article, after a wall of ads and filler (I'm impatient).
- andrewfurey2003 2y agoThanks
- nomel 2y agoWhy? Is it because the poles are aligned with earths, complimenting our own magnetic field? It appears the magnetic poles are in continuous rotation [1], that sometimes aligns to the rotational poles and sometimes doesn't, with a "flip" event being the binary classification from the slow and smooth traversal over the equator. I feel silly, but I always assumed it was from some more fairly sharp step in the rate of change! [1] https://www.stce.be/news/211/welcome.html https://www.stce.be/news/211/welcome.html
- eerpini 2y agoThere is an animation further down that shows the magnetic field generated by the sun when it is a dipole. Apparently the 3-d wave like pattern better shields from cosmic rays originating outside the solar system.
- whaleofatw2022 2y ago... interesting question though.. Is this related to why my part of the US has had UV notices lately?