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 Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:47 pm
Blood_of_odin Emily`s_Gone_Mad Does Mars have a magnetic field?
I remeber reading somewhere about how it has no magnetic field, but it did at one point.
Is it possible for our planet Earth to loss it's magnetic field as well?
Not necessarily due to solar maximums...
Also it was discussed in one of my classes about how the magnetic field is becoming weaker...due to the reversing of poles?
Do you think that could have major impact on life on earth? because for a few instances we would have no Magnetic field while it reinstates itself... I don't know about whether or not it has one but it does still have activity beneath the surface I believe. (Don't quote me on that Planetary isn't my strong point) It can but our core would have to stop spinning. Good luck stopping that. They are reversing as far as I know but I don't know how. (Like I said planetary isn't my suit) The problem is that no one has seen such a thing. They tell stories of when the atom bomb was created they didn't know what all the effects of it could be. We haven't seen it so for all we think we don't know. It would have a major impact if it disappeared but as far as I know its not going to disappear and the reappear but move. I don't know the specifics but I don't think its going to disappear.
Well, it couldn't be good for us to completely loose the magnetic field, that's what keeps us from the solar radiation... And that radiation is too friendly to living cells...
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:03 pm
The current magnetic field is weakening. It should be flipping at some point in the relatively near future. However, the effects are hard to predict. We really don't know much about how they flip, and how long (if at all) they'll be gone.
Since the magnetic field protects us from charged particles from the sun, if we lose this for very long, it could be very harmful. However, since the magnetic field has flipped many times in the past and there are no extinctions assosciated with these reversals, I don't think it's a major problem.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:15 pm
Mars does not have a global magnetic field the way earth does although it does have strong crustal magnetic fields (unforunately I don't know exactly what this means other than that its crust generates a strong magnetic force). The reason mars doesn't have one and earth does is because the molten core of mars is already cooled off (at least mostly) and has been for some time. Nasa studies suggest that Mars did at one point have a magnetic field but that it ceased about the same time as Mar's core cooled down. It would be possible for earth to lose its magnetic field (but not due to pole shifts). If the core of the earth stopped rotating, or the rotation of the planet itself slowed down enought, it is likely that our magnetic field would be affected, and possibly destroyed. Any catastrophy suffienct to cause either of these things might wipe us out irrespective of its effect on the magnetic field. http://mgs-mager.gsfc.nasa.gov/ (for info on mar's magentic field)
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 5:02 pm
I'm glad so many questions are being asked and answered. I hope the thread will continue to run like this. Thank you those who post in here regularly. surprised
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:32 pm
I have an EXTREMELY wonderful astronomy book called Universe with the general editor Martin Rees. The price for it is hefty however: about fifty dollars as the marked price on the back. But it is really informative.
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 10:15 pm
The Ghost Shinobi I have an EXTREMELY wonderful astronomy book called Universe with the general editor Martin Rees. The price for it is hefty however: about fifty dollars as the marked price on the back. But it is really informative. Most textbooks are far more expensive than that. My Astrophysics text is $130. You might want to change your font color. It's hard to read.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 4:45 pm
The Ghost Shinobi I have an EXTREMELY wonderful astronomy book called Universe with the general editor Martin Rees. The price for it is hefty however: about fifty dollars as the marked price on the back. But it is really informative. Hm, I'll look for it in Barnes and Noble and check it out. I remember having astronomy books as a kid...I just don't remember where they are neutral
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:00 pm
I have one called the cosmic perspective.
Came with my text book for my Astro class about 2 years ago...I have never actually looked at it...
*goes to look at it*
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:01 pm
VoijaRisa The Ghost Shinobi I have an EXTREMELY wonderful astronomy book called Universe with the general editor Martin Rees. The price for it is hefty however: about fifty dollars as the marked price on the back. But it is really informative. Most textbooks are far more expensive than that. My Astrophysics text is $130. You might want to change your font color. It's hard to read.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:03 pm
`Zeke The Ghost Shinobi I have an EXTREMELY wonderful astronomy book called Universe with the general editor Martin Rees. The price for it is hefty however: about fifty dollars as the marked price on the back. But it is really informative. Hm, I'll look for it in Barnes and Noble and check it out. I remember having astronomy books as a kid...I just don't remember where they are neutral
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:52 am
Being as though I tend to look out a bit when it comes to astronomy, concerning Earth and the magnetic field... question...
Does this reversing of the magnetic field affect the seasons? If so, how and how much? Is there any data concerning this?
I suppose I should read back a bit too.
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:17 am
Animatratus Does this reversing of the magnetic field affect the seasons? If so, how and how much? Is there any data concerning this? No. The reversal will have no effect on the seasons. Rather, the seasons are caused by the 23.5ยบ tilt of earth's axis with respect to the perpendicular of our orbit. In summer, the Earth's northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. Wait six months till it's on the other side, and the southern hemisphere is tilted towards. What this means, is that we're getting more direct sunlight. In winter, since the angle is more oblique, it's spread over a larger area, thus, we get less efficient heating. The magnetic fields have no effect on normal light coming in and heating the earth; only on charged particles.
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 12:44 pm
Ok I have a question and perhaps it's a silly one, but Why are the planets round?
I know it has something to do with gravity...and something about the force of gravity pulling inward twards the center resulting in a spherical shape, but...why?
Why not a square?
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 12:46 pm
On another note, did anyone hear of that recent Supernova?
I breifly read of it, and how it might be a huge new type of explosion.
What's so improtant about that though?
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 1:18 pm
Jubillie Ok I have a question and perhaps it's a silly one, but Why are the planets round?
I know it has something to do with gravity...and something about the force of gravity pulling inward twards the center resulting in a spherical shape, but...why?
Why not a square? Everything will tend to go towards the lowest energy state. If you lift something up, it will fall down. For a gravitational potential, the lowest potential is at the centre of mass. Let's take a look at this in 2 dimentions:  Here, we can see that R1 (the radius of a circle) is closer to the center of mass (at the center of both the circle and square), than R2 is. Thus, if we compare the total potential energies, the square has all those corners (the black parts) that aren't yet at the lowest potential. When planets form, there's so much potential energy being converted to thermal, that they're not quite solid like they are now. They're mostly molten (our core still is), so it's easy for things to move to the place lowest potential. In 2 dimentions, that's a circle. In 3, it's a sphere.
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