All posts tagged: Magnetic

Earth’s magnetic poles once took 70,000 years to reverse

Earth’s magnetic poles once took 70,000 years to reverse

Published by Jenni Sidey

Earth’s magnetic field does not simply switch direction like a flipped light switch. It weakens, wanders, and reorganizes itself over thousands of years before settling again. For decades, researchers believed most of these geomagnetic reversals followed a fairly consistent timeline, usually wrapping up within about 10,000 years. Evidence from sediments buried deep beneath the North Atlantic now suggests that assumption may be too simple. A newly analyzed record indicates that one ancient magnetic reversal stretched for roughly 70,000 years, far longer than scientists had previously documented. The findings point to a magnetic system that behaves with more variability and complexity than once thought, with possible consequences for Earth’s atmosphere and life during those unstable periods. The Northern Lights (aurora borealis) are created when charged particles from the Sun’s solar wind/coronal mass ejections interact with Earth’s magnetic field. (CREDIT: Shutterstock) Sediments that captured a rare moment The discovery traces back to a 2012 drilling expedition off Newfoundland, part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program’s Expedition 342. Scientists extracted sediment cores from as deep as 300 meters …

TMR vs. Hall Effect Controllers: Battle of the Magnetic Sensing Tech

TMR vs. Hall Effect Controllers: Battle of the Magnetic Sensing Tech

Published by skeptic

Competitive gamers look for every advantage they can get, and that drive has spawned some of the zaniest gaming peripherals under the sun. There are plenty of hardware components that actually offer meaningful edges when implemented properly. Hall effect and TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance or tunneling magnetoresistance) sensors are two such technologies. Hall effect sensors have found their way into a wide variety of devices, including keyboards and gaming controllers, including some of our favorites like the GameSir Super Nova.  More recently, TMR sensors have started to appear in these devices as well. Is it a better technology for gaming? With multiple options vying for your lunch money, it’s worth understanding the differences to decide which is more worthy of living inside your next game controller or keyboard.  How Hall effect joysticks work GameSir incorporates Hall effect sticks into many of its game controllers. GameSir We’ve previously broken down the difference between Hall effect tech and traditional potentiometers in controller joysticks, but here’s a quick rundown on how Hall effect sensors work. A Hall effect joystick …

Event Horizon Telescope captures magnetic turbulence flickering at the edge of black hole M87*

Event Horizon Telescope captures magnetic turbulence flickering at the edge of black hole M87*

Published by Jenni Sidey

For a few brief nights each year, you get a rare chance to watch a monster blink. The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has released new, detailed views of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy M87. The images do not just show a glowing ring. They also track polarized light, a clue that reveals how magnetic fields behave near the edge of the black hole. Researchers from the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics helped construct and validate the images. What they found is both steady and startling. The size of the ring stays consistent over time. Yet the polarization pattern, the “fingerprint” of magnetism, changes sharply from year to year. That shift suggests a turbulent environment close to the event horizon. It also raises a simple question that is proving hard to answer: why did the magnetic signal fade, then flip? New images from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration have revealed a dynamic environment with changing polarization patterns in the magnetic fields of supermassive black …

Scientists reveal how quantum electron spin can create magnetism

Scientists reveal how quantum electron spin can create magnetism

Published by Jenni Sidey

At the smallest scales of matter, nature behaves in ways that feel almost counterintuitive. Individual particles follow simple rules, but when they interact together, entirely new behaviors can emerge. This collective behavior sits at the heart of condensed matter physics, a field that tries to explain why materials act the way they do. One of the most puzzling and influential examples of this phenomenon is the Kondo effect, a quantum interaction that has shaped decades of research into magnetism and electronic materials. A new study now shows that this famous effect does not behave the same way in all cases. Instead, its outcome depends on something surprisingly simple; the size of a particle’s spin. By carefully building and testing a new quantum material, researchers have shown that the Kondo effect can either erase magnetism or help it grow, depending on that single property. The finding reshapes how scientists understand magnetic order at the quantum level and opens new directions for designing future quantum materials. Crystal structure and Kondo necklace model. (CREDIT: Nature) Why Collective Quantum …

Huge hot blobs inside Earth may have made its magnetic field wonky

Huge hot blobs inside Earth may have made its magnetic field wonky

Published by skeptic

Earth’s magnetic field extends tens of thousands of kilometres into space Getty Images/iStockphoto Two vast, mysterious blobs of hot rock around Earth’s core may have been instrumental in producing Earth’s magnetic field and caused it to be slightly wonky for millions of years. Scientists have known for decades about two peculiar continent-sized chunks of rock, one beneath Africa and the other under the Pacific Ocean. These blobs, which extend nearly 1000 kilometres from the outer core to the rocky mantle above, must be different from their surroundings because seismic waves travel through them more slowly. But as it is difficult to measure them due to their depth, scientists can’t identify exactly how they differ. Andrew Biggin at the University of Liverpool, UK, and his colleagues looked to Earth’s magnetic field for clues. This field has been generated for billions of years by the churning of molten iron within our planet’s core. It extends tens of thousands of kilometres into space, protecting us from solar wind and cosmic radiation. The exact shape and form of this magnetic …

Central and South America collided much earlier than previously thought

Central and South America collided much earlier than previously thought

Published by Jenni Sidey

The ground beneath northern South America holds memories far older than any city or road. Locked inside ancient volcanic rocks is a record of when continents collided, mountains rose, and the shape of the Americas began to change. A new scientific study suggests that one of the most important tectonic events in this region happened earlier than scientists once believed. Research shows that the collision between Central America and South America was largely complete before about 10 million years ago. That timing challenges long-standing ideas about how and when the northern Andes were formed. The study was led by Victor Piedrahita and J. Li, working with an international team of geoscientists. Their work focuses on Colombia’s Northern Andes, where layers of volcanic rock act like a geological diary. By reading those layers in a new way, the researchers uncovered evidence that major crustal deformation had already slowed by the late Miocene. Geological framework of the northwestern Andes, including major tectonic plates, faults, and cordilleras. (CREDIT: Earth and Planetary Physics) Reading the Past Written in Rock …

Two Titanic Structures Hidden Deep Within the Earth Have Altered the Magnetic Field for Millions of Years

Two Titanic Structures Hidden Deep Within the Earth Have Altered the Magnetic Field for Millions of Years

Published by skeptic

A team of geologists has found for the first time evidence that two ancient, continent-sized, ultrahot structures hidden beneath the Earth have shaped the planet’s magnetic field for the past 265 million years. These two masses, known as large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs), are part of the catalog of the planet’s most enormous and enigmatic objects. Current estimates calculate that each one is comparable in size to the African continent, although they remain buried at a depth of 2,900 kilometers. Low-lying surface vertical velocity (LLVV) regions form irregular areas of the Earth’s mantle, not defined blocks of rock or metal as one might imagine. Within them, the mantle material is hotter, denser, and chemically different from the surrounding material. They are also notable because a “ring” of cooler material surrounds them, where seismic waves travel faster. Geologists had suspected these anomalies existed since the late 1970s and were able to confirm them two decades later. After another 10 years of research, they now point to them directly as structures capable of modifying Earth’s magnetic field. LLSVPs …

How giant ‘Blobs’ of rock have influenced Earth’s magnetic field for millions of years – new research

How giant ‘Blobs’ of rock have influenced Earth’s magnetic field for millions of years – new research

Published by skeptic

While we have sent probes billions of kilometres into interstellar space, humans have barely scratched the surface of our own planet, not even making it through the thin crust. Information about Earth’s deep interior comes mainly from geophysics and is at a premium. We know it consists of a solid crust, a rocky mantle, a liquid outer core and solid inner core. But what precisely goes on in each layer – and between them – is a mystery. Now our research uses our planet’s magnetism to cast light on the most significant interface in the Earth’s interior: its core-mantle boundary. Roughly 3,000km beneath our feet, Earth’s outer core, an unfathomably deep ocean of molten iron alloy, endlessly churns to produce a global magnetic field stretching out far into space. Sustaining this “geodynamo”, and the planetary force-field it has produced for the past several billions of years (protecting Earth from harmful radiation), takes a lot of energy. This was delivered to the core as heat during the Earth’s formation. But it is only released to drive …

Deep magma oceans generate magnetic fields to protect planets and support life

Deep magma oceans generate magnetic fields to protect planets and support life

Published by Jenni Sidey

In addition to shaping the interior of rocky planets, molten rock located deep within these planets may also contribute to the creation of a planet’s magnetic fields, which protect the entire planet from radiation. This latest discovery by scientists from the University of Rochester has shown that a basal magma ocean (a layer of molten rock) located deep within a planet may produce a long-lasting magnetic field around it. Large rocky exoplanets called super-Earths may benefit from this long-lasting magnetic field. Magnetic fields protect the atmosphere and surface of planets from charged particles as well as cosmic radiation; therefore, they play an essential role in protecting life on planets. Our planet, Earth, has a magnetic field produced by the movement of liquid iron in its outer core; however, many rocky planets, including Mars and Venus, do not have global magnetic fields at this time because the physical conditions in their cores do not support the same processes that create our magnetic field. Miki Nakajima, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences …

Satellites could use magnetic fields to avoid collisions

Satellites could use magnetic fields to avoid collisions

Published by skeptic

There may be a new way to control satellites in space Mike_shots/Shutterstock It may be possible to keep space exploration missions running longer and avoid spacecraft colliding with each other using a technique that harnesses magnetic fields to move satellites. Currently, most space missions and satellites have a finite lifespan because the objects are moved around in space using propellant fuel, which often runs out. One alternative method called Electromagnetic Formation Flying (EMFF) relies on renewable power sources, such as solar panels, to power electromagnetic coils on board the satellites. These generate a magnetic field which, through interaction with similar magnetic fields generated on any nearby satellite, can theoretically be used to manoeuvre the spacecraft. But researchers have encountered difficulties in using EMFF to move objects in space because of an issue called magnetic coupling. The magnetic field generated by a satellite doesn’t interfere with just one nearby satellite but with all the satellites around it, making it tricky to move more than two nearby satellites in a controlled way. A team of researchers at …