The Creation of the Earth’s Magnetic Field
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1408-the-earth-s-magnetic-field
Eric Metaxas: Is God dead? page 45:
One of the simplest examples of this has to do with the size of our planet. We now know if our own Earth were any bigger or smaller, life here could not exist. This is only one of the parameters we have discovered as necessary for life, but it’s a good place to begin. The first question must be why the size of a planet would have anything to do with whether life could flourish, and the first and simplest answer has to do with our magnetic field. Whoever thinks about Earth’s magnetic field? But it happens nonetheless to be magnificently important in many ways. If Earth were any smaller, our magnetic field would be weaker, and what we call the “solar wind” would quickly strip our atmosphere down to almost nothing, so that we would end up like Mars, which is of course a lifeless world. And who thinks about the solar wind? But if we did, we would realize that it is a stream of charged particles—“ion gas” or plasma— made up of electrons, protons, and some alpha rays blasted toward us every moment from the sun. But because of the size of our planet, our “magnetosphere” is just powerful enough to protect us from that radiation. The magnetospheres of the gigantic planets Jupiter and Saturn are also very powerful. And just as happens here on Earth, their magnetospheres deflect the solar wind so that it travels mostly around them instead of to their surfaces. Here on Earth, the solar winds would have long ago stripped away our hydrogen and oxygen, which of course make up water, which could hardly be more important. Mars is not much smaller than Earth, but it is just small enough that its magnetosphere cannot protect it. This is just one aspect of the fine-tuning of Earth’s environment, illustrating how little it would take for life here to be impossible. But it’s a fact that if Earth were slightly smaller, there could be no life here. But if Earth were any larger, we would have other life-killing problems. A larger Earth would have more powerful gravity, so that no water or methane or carbon dioxide could escape our atmosphere, which would be so thick we couldn’t breathe. Our air would be more “viscous.” Earth may be almost as big as a terrestrial planet can get. Again, who would ever think that the size of our planet would be so precisely and perfectly calculated for life? That if it were even slightly smaller or larger there could be no life whatsoever? But the more science learns, the more we see that the science fiction scenarios we have grown up with are hopelessly out of date and have confused us into believing that the conditions for life on any given planet can vary dramatically. But now we know that they cannot.
https://3lib.net/book/18063091/2dbdee
The evidence of the plasma shield
1. In Science Magazine1, a team of geophysicists found another way that the earth’s magnetosphere protects life on the surface. When high-energy ions in the solar wind threaten to work their way through cracks in the magnetosphere, earth sends up a “plasma plume” to block them. The automatic mechanism is described on New Scientist2 as a “plasma shield” that battles solar storms.
2. Joel Borofsky from Space Science Institute says, “Earth doesn’t just sit there and take whatever the solar wind gives it, it can actually fight back.”
3. Earth’s magnetic shield can develop “cracks” when the sun’s magnetic field links up with it in a process called “reconnection.” Between the field lines, high-energy charged particles can flow during solar storms, leading to spectacular auroras, but also disrupting ground-based communications. But Earth has an arsenal to defend itself. Plasma created by solar UV is stored in a donut-shaped ring around the globe. When cracks develop, the plasma cloud can send up “tendrils” of plasma to fight off the charged solar particles. The tendrils create a buffer zone that weakens reconnection.
4. Previously only suspected in theory, the plasma shielding has now been observed. As decribes by Brian Walsh of NASA-Goddard in New Scientist:
“For the first time, we were able to monitor the entire cycle of this plasma stretching from the atmosphere to the boundary between Earth’s magnetic field and the sun’s. It gets to that boundary and helps protect us, keeps these solar storms from slamming into us.”
5. According to Borofsky this observation is made possible by looking at the magnetosphere from a “systems science” approach. Geophysicists can now see the whole cycle as a “negative feedback loop” – “that is, the stronger the driving, the more rapidly plasma is fed into the reconnection site,” he explains. “…it is a system-wide phenomenon involving the ionosphere, the near-Earth magnetosphere, the sunward boundary of the magnetosphere, and the solar wind; and it involves diverse physical processes such as ionospheric outflows, magnetospheric transport, and magnetic-field-line reconnection.”
6. The result of all these complex interactions is another level of protection for life on Earth that automatically adjusts for the fury of the battle:
“The plasmasphere effect is indicative of a new level of sophistication in the understanding of how the magnetospheric system operates. The effect can be particularly important for reducing solar-wind/magnetosphere coupling during geomagnetic storms. Instead of unchallenged solar-wind control of the rate of solar-wind/magnetosphere coupling, we see that the magnetosphere, with the help of the ionosphere, fights back.”
7. Because of this mechanism, even the most severe coronal mass ejections (CME) do not cause serious harm to the organisms on the surface of the Earth.
8. The necessary timings when this system should be activated and the whole complex, very important protection system of plasma shield, battling the solar storms is an evidence of intelligent design, for the purpose of maintaining the life of the living entities on the earth planet.
9. This intelligent designer, the creator of such a great system, all men call God.
10. God exists.
http://carbonomics.net/MCcarbon/Carbonomics/13c10/13c10c.html
1.4: The Creation of the Earth’s Magnetic Field.
The iron catastrophe turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the life that was to eventually emerge on Earth. It was one of a myriad number of factors that would later help to ensure the survival of life on the planet, "As the liquid iron swirled around it produced an invisible force that even today helps keep us alive: the Earth’s magnetic field. Convection currents inside the liquid core behaved like a dynamo and generated electric currents. These transformed our planet into a giant magnet with north and south magnetic poles." "Without the liquid iron core the early atmosphere would have been stripped away and life could never have evolved on our planet. That’s because space is lethal. It’s full of highly dangerous solar particles that can be ten times more deadly than the radiation from a nuclear explosion. These particles originate from the sun when it spews out massive solar flares. A devastating solar wind streams towards the Earth at 250 miles per second. That’s a million miles an hour. If it ever reached the surface of our planet it would strip away the atmosphere in a few thousand years. But the Earth’s magnetic field creates a protective shield and deflects the solar particles. Without the molten core, today our planet would be a sterile rocky sphere with little or no atmosphere. The tragic fate that befell our neighbouring planet, mars."
The earth’s magnetic field is critically important for at least two reasons:
it provides protection for life from high-energy particles originating from both cosmic rays and from our sun, and it provides a shield preventing the depletion of our atmosphere from bombardment by the stream of charged particles ejected from the sun. 5 Because Earth rotates once every 24 hours, this motion causes its iron core to generate a strong magnetic field. This magnetic field shields Earth from cosmic rays, in addition to protecting Earth’s atmosphere from the solar wind. 6
Geologist hypothesize that the core of Earth is composed of a solid iron core and liquid iron outer core. Now two things are important about the cores' composition that makes it magnetic: 1. it is composed of iron and 2. it has a liquid outer core. As you likely know iron is a magnetic element. From physics we know a magnetic field can be induced when a charged ion moves in space. Think of it like electricity the power lines have flowing electrons in them as they move from the power plant to your home they actually induce a magnetic field in the power line. Now for Earth's liquid iron outer core, it is so hot the iron exists in a liquid, ionically charged state. So when the charged liquid iron moves about in the outer core the material induces Earth's magnetic field. Earth's magnetic field allows all life to exist as we know it today. Without our magnetic field Earth would be much like Mars, the magnetic field extends into outer space beyond our atmosphere and deflects high energy particles emitted by the sun. If these high- energy particles were not deflected they would strip Earth's atmosphere, all the oceans would evaporate into space, it would get very cold below freezing, and destroy all life as we know it. 11
At the center of the Earth is the core, which has two parts. The solid, inner core of iron has a radius of about 760 miles (about 1,220 km). It is surrounded by a liquid, outer core composed of a nickel-iron alloy. It is about 1,355 miles (2,180 km) thick. The inner core spins at a different speed than the rest of the planet. This is thought to cause Earth's magnetic field. 12
To develop and maintain a strong, steady magnetic field presents a challenge. Everything depends on the planet’s internal composition. For a rocky planet to maintain a sufficiently strong and enduring magnetic field, its internal composition must closely resemble Earth’s. In particular, it must have a liquid iron outer core surrounding a solid iron inner core and highly specified viscosity and magnetic diffusivity values at the inner-outer core and outer core–mantle boundaries. 9 A team of scientists has measured the melting point of iron at high precision in a laboratory, and then drew from that result to calculate the temperature at the boundary of Earth's inner and outer core — now estimated at 6,000 C (about 10,800 F). That's as hot as the surface of the sun.
The difference in temperature matters, because this explains how the Earth generates its magnetic field. The Earth has a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core, which, in turn, has the solid, but flowing, mantle above it. There needs to be a 2,700-degree F (1,500 C) difference between the inner core and the mantle to spur "thermal movements" that — along with Earth's spin — create the magnetic field. 10
The evidence of the plasma shield
1. In Science Magazine, a team of geophysicists found another way that the earth’s magnetosphere protects life on the surface. When high-energy ions in the solar wind threaten to work their way through cracks in the magnetosphere, Earth sends up a “plasma plume” to block them. The automatic mechanism is described on New Scientist as a “plasma shield” that battles solar storms.
2. Joel Borofsky from Space Science Institute says, “Earth doesn’t just sit there and take whatever the solar wind gives it, it can actually fight back.”
3. Earth’s magnetic shield can develop “cracks” when the sun’s magnetic field links up with it in a process called “reconnection.” Between the field lines, high-energy charged particles can flow during solar storms, leading to spectacular auroras, but also disrupting ground-based communications. But Earth has an arsenal to defend itself. Plasma created by solar UV is stored in a donut-shaped ring around the globe. When cracks develop, the plasma cloud can send up “tendrils” of plasma to fight off the charged solar particles. The tendrils create a buffer zone that weakens reconnection.
4. Previously only suspected in theory, the plasma shielding has now been observed. As described by Brian Walsh of NASA-Goddard in New Scientist:
“For the first time, we were able to monitor the entire cycle of this plasma stretching from the atmosphere to the boundary between Earth’s magnetic field and the sun’s. It gets to that boundary and helps protect us, keeps these solar storms from slamming into us.”
5. According to Borofsky this observation is made possible by looking at the magnetosphere from a “systems science” approach. Geophysicists can now see the whole cycle as a “negative feedback loop” – “that is, the stronger the driving, the more rapidly plasma is fed into the reconnection site,” he explains. “…it is a system-wide phenomenon involving the ionosphere, the near-Earth magnetosphere, the sunward boundary of the magnetosphere, and the solar wind; and it involves diverse physical processes such as ionospheric outflows, magnetospheric transport, and magnetic-field-line reconnection.”
6. The result of all these complex interactions is another level of protection for life on Earth that automatically adjusts for the fury of the battle:
“The plasmasphere effect is indicative of a new level of sophistication in the understanding of how the magnetospheric system operates. The effect can be particularly important for reducing solar-wind/magnetosphere coupling during geomagnetic storms. Instead of unchallenged solar wind control of the rate of solar-wind/magnetosphere coupling, we see that the magnetosphere, with the help of the ionosphere, fights back.”
7. Because of this mechanism, even the most severe coronal mass ejections (CME) do not cause serious harm to the organisms on the surface of the Earth.
8. The necessary timings when this system should be activated and the whole complex, very important protection system of plasma shield, battling the solar storms is an evidence of intelligent design, for the purpose of maintaining the life of the living entities on the earth planet.
9. This intelligent designer, the creator of such a great system, best explains its existence.
The Creation of the Earth’s Magnetic Field. 1
The iron catastrophe turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the life that was to eventually emerge on Earth. It was one of a myriad number of factors that would later help to ensure the survival of life on the planet, "As the liquid iron swirled around it produced an invisible force that even today helps keep us alive: the Earth’s magnetic field. Convection currents inside the liquid core behaved like a dynamo and generated electric currents. These transformed our planet into a giant magnet with north and south magnetic poles." "Without the liquid iron core the early atmosphere would have been stripped away and life could never have evolved on our planet. That’s because space is lethal. It’s full of highly dangerous solar particles that can be ten times more deadly than the radiation from a nuclear explosion. These particles originate from the sun when it spews out massive solar flares. A devastating solar wind streams towards the Earth at 250 miles per second. That’s a million miles an hour. If it ever reached the surface of our planet it would strip away the atmosphere in a few thousand years. But the Earth’s magnetic field creates a protective shield and deflects the solar particles. Without the molten core, today our planet would be a sterile rocky sphere with little or no atmosphere. The tragic fate that befell our neighboring planet, Mars."
A terrestrial planet with plate tectonics is also more likely to have a strong magnetic field since both depend on convective overturning of its interior. And a strong magnetic field contributes mightily to a planet’s habitability by creating a cavity called the magnetosphere, which shields a planet’s atmosphere from direct interaction with the solar wind. If solar wind particles— consisting of protons and electrons—were to interact more directly with Earth’s upper atmosphere, they would be much more effective at “sputtering” or be stripping it away (especially the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen from water). For life, that would be bad news, since the water would be lost more quickly to space. Just as Star Trek’s Enterprise uses a force field to protect it from incoming photon torpedoes, Earth’s magnetic field serves as the next line of defense against galactic cosmic ray particles, after the Sun’s magnetic field and solar wind deflect the lower-energy cosmic rays. These cosmic ray particles consist of high-energy protons and other nuclei, which, together with highly interacting subatomic particles called mesons, interact with nuclei in our atmosphere. These secondary particles can pass through our bodies, causing radiation damage and breaking up nuclei in our cells.
Invisible hissing doughnut is Earth’s radiation shield 3
The rainbow ring the picture above is full of tiny radioactive missiles traveling close to the speed of light, shown as yellow and blue streaks. Far above Earth, this high-energy radiation from space can damage satellite electronics and pose serious health risks to astronauts. The particles also constantly charge towards the planet’s surface, but luckily an invisible shield of plasma bent into a doughnut shape by Earth’s magnetic field, shown in green, keeps radiation at bay. There is an absolute limit on how close it can get – a comfortable 11,000 kilometers from the surface. A phenomenon called “plasmaspheric hiss” seems to be responsible: very low-frequency electromagnetic waves just inside the boundary of the plasma shield that sound like hissing static when played through a speaker. “It’s a very unusual, extraordinary, and pronounced phenomenon,” says Foster. “What this tells us is that if you parked a satellite or an orbiting space station with humans just inside this impenetrable barrier, you would expect them to have a much longer lifetime. That’s a good thing to know.”
Protective shield 8
Data gathered by the probes also showed that the radiation belts shield Earth from high-energy particles. "The barrier for the ultrafast electrons is a remarkable feature of the belts," study lead author Dan Baker, of the University of Colorado in Boulder, said in a statement.
In January 2016, scientists revealed that the shape of the belts depends on what type of electron is being studied. This means the two belts are much more complex; depending on what is being observed, they can be a single belt, two separate belts or just an outer belt (with no inner belt at all.)
Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. In 2012, observations from the Van Allen Probes showed that a third belt can sometimes appear. The radiation is shown here in yellow, with green representing the spaces between the belts.
Earth is surrounded by giant donut-shaped swaths of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles. These radiation belts were discovered in 1958 by the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1. The discovery was led by James Van Allen at the University of Iowa, which eventually caused the belts to be named after him.
Van Allen's experiment on Explorer 1, which launched Jan. 31, 1958, had a simple cosmic ray experiment consisting of a Geiger counter (a device that detects radiation) and a tape recorder. Follow-up experiments on three other missions in 1958 — Explorer 3, Explorer 4 and Pioneer 3 — established that there were two belts of radiation circling the Earth.
This simple picture of the radiation belts persisted for decades until 2012, when a pair of probes was launched to study them in detail. This was the first time that two spacecraft simultaneously studied the radiation belts, trading information with each other to build a bigger picture.
Early probe findings
Part of the interest in the Van Allen belts comes from where they are located. It is known that the belts can swell when the sun becomes more active. Before the probes launched, scientists thought the inner belt was relatively stable, but when it did expand its influence extended over the orbit of the International Space Station and several satellites. The outer belt fluctuated more often.
The Van Allen Probes (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm probes) have several scientific goals, including discovering how the particles — ions and electrons — in the belts are accelerated and transported, how electrons are lost and how the belts change during geomagnetic storms. The mission was planned to last two years, but as of August 2016 the probes were still operating at double the expected mission lifetime.
Usually, scientists take a few months to calibrate their instruments, but a team with the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope asked that their instrument be turned on almost immediately (three days after launch). Their reasoning was they wanted to compare observations before another mission, SAMPEX (Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer), de-orbited and entered Earth's atmosphere.
"It was a lucky decision," NASA said in February 2013, noting that a solar storm had already caused the radiation belts to swell as soon as the instrument was turned on. "Then something happened no one had ever seen before: the particles settled into a new configuration, showing an extra, third belt extending out into space," the agency added. "Within mere days of launch, the Van Allen Probes showed scientists something that would require rewriting textbooks."
Protective shield
Data gathered by the probes also showed that the radiation belts shield Earth from high-energy particles. "The barrier for the ultrafast electrons is a remarkable feature of the belts," study lead author Dan Baker, of the University of Colorado in Boulder, said in a statement.
"We're able to study it for the first time, because we never had such accurate measurements of these high-energy electrons before." [Gallery: NASA's Van Allen Probes]
Complex configuration
This new information helped scientists model the belts' changes. But there was more information to come. In January 2016, scientists revealed that the shape of the belts depends on what type of electron is being studied. This means the two belts are much more complex; depending on what is being observed, they can be a single belt, two separate belts or just an outer belt (with no inner belt at all.)
"The researchers found that the inner belt — the smaller belt in the classic picture of the belts — is much larger than the outer belt when observing electrons with low energies, while the outer belt is larger when observing electrons at higher energies," NASA wrote at the time. "At the very highest energies, the inner belt structure is missing completely. So, depending on what one focuses on, the radiation belts can appear to have very different structures simultaneously."
What is still poorly understood, however, is what happens when particles from the sun hit the belts during a geomagnetic storm. It is known that the number of electrons in the belts changes, either decreasing or increasing depending on the situation. Also, the belts eventually return to their normal shape after the storm passes. NASA said it isn't clear what kind of storm will cause a specific type of belt configuration. Also, the agency noted, any previous observations were done only with electrons at a few energy levels. More work needs to be done.
Luckily, scientists got the chance to observe a storm up close in March 2015, when one of the Van Allen probes happened to be situated inside the "right" spot in Earth's magnetic field to see an interplanetary shock. NASA describes such shocks as similar to when a tsunami is triggered by an earthquake; in this case, a coronal mass ejection of charged particles from the sun creates a shock in specific areas of the belts.
"The spacecraft measured a sudden pulse of electrons energized to extreme speeds — nearly as fast as the speed of light — as the shock slammed the outer radiation belt," NASA wrote at the time. "This population of electrons was short-lived, and their energy dissipated within minutes. But five days later, long after other processes from the storm had died down, the Van Allen probes detected an increased number of even higher energy electrons. Such an increase so much later is a testament to the unique energization processes following the storm."
Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space 7
The Van Allen belts are a collection of charged particles, gathered in place by Earth’s magnetic field. They can wax and wane in response to incoming energy from the sun, sometimes swelling up enough to expose satellites in low-Earth orbit to damaging radiation. The discovery of the drain that acts as a barrier within the belts was made using NASA's Van Allen Probes, launched in August 2012 to study the region. A paper on these results appeared in the Nov. 27, 2014, issue of Nature magazine.
“This barrier for the ultra-fast electrons is a remarkable feature of the belts," said Dan Baker, a space scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder and first author of the paper. "We're able to study it for the first time, because we never had such accurate measurements of these high-energy electrons before." Understanding what gives the radiation belts their shape and what can affect the way they swell or shrink helps scientists predict the onset of those changes. Such predictions can help scientists protect satellites in the area from the radiation. The Van Allen belts were the first discovery of the space age, measured with the launch of a US satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958. In the decades since, scientists have learned that the size of the two belts can change – or merge, or even separate into three belts occasionally. But generally the inner belt stretches from 400 to 6,000 miles above Earth's surface and the outer belt stretches from 8,400 to 36,000 miles above Earth's surface. A slot of fairly empty space typically separates the belts. But, what keeps them separate? Why is there a region in between the belts with no electrons?
Enter the newly discovered barrier. The Van Allen Probes data show that the inner edge of the outer belt is, in fact, highly pronounced. For the fastest, highest-energy electrons, this edge is a sharp boundary that, under normal circumstances, the electrons simply cannot penetrate. "When you look at really energetic electrons, they can only come to within a certain distance from Earth," said Shri Kanekal, the deputy mission scientist for the Van Allen Probes at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and a co-author on the Nature paper. "This is completely new. We certainly didn't expect that." The team looked at possible causes. They determined that human-generated transmissions were not the cause of the barrier. They also looked at physical causes. Could the very shape of the magnetic field surrounding Earth cause the boundary? Scientists studied but eliminated that possibility. What about the presence of other space particles? This appears to be a more likely cause. This animated gif shows how particles move through Earth’s radiation belts, the large donuts around Earth. The sphere in the middle shows a cloud of colder material called the plasmasphere. New research shows that the plasmasphere helps keep fast electrons from the radiation belts away from Earth.
The radiation belts are not the only particle structures surrounding Earth. A giant cloud of relatively cool, charged particles called the plasmasphere fills the outermost region of Earth's atmosphere, beginning at about 600 miles up and extending partially into the outer Van Allen belt. The particles at the outer boundary of the plasmasphere cause particles in the outer radiation belt to scatter, removing them from the belt. This scattering effect is fairly weak and might not be enough to keep the electrons at the boundary in place, except for a quirk of geometry: The radiation belt electrons move incredibly quickly, but not toward Earth. Instead, they move in giant loops around Earth. The Van Allen Probes data show that in the direction toward Earth, the most energetic electrons have very little motion at all – just a gentle, slow drift that occurs over the course of months. This is a movement so slow and weak that it can be rebuffed by the scattering caused by the plasmasphere. This also helps explain why – under extreme conditions, when an especially strong solar wind or a giant solar eruption such as a coronal mass ejection sends clouds of material into near-Earth space – the electrons from the outer belt can be pushed into the usually-empty slot region between the belts. "The scattering due to the plasmapause is strong enough to create a wall at the inner edge of the outer Van Allen Belt," said Baker. "But a strong solar wind event causes the plasmasphere boundary to move inward." A massive inflow of matter from the sun can erode the outer plasmasphere, moving its boundaries inward and allowing electrons from the radiation belts the room to move further inward too.
An impenetrable barrier to ultrarelativistic electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts 4
Here we analyze an extended data set that reveals an exceedingly sharp inner boundary for the ultrarelativistic electrons. Additional, concurrently measured data reveal that this barrier to inward electron radial transport does not arise because of a physical boundary within the Earth’s intrinsic magnetic field and that inward radial diffusion is unlikely to be inhibited by scattering by an electromagnetic transmitter wave fields. Rather, we suggest that exceptionally slow natural inward radial diffusion combined with weak, but persistent, wave–particle pitch angle scattering deep inside the Earth’s plasmasphere can combine to create an almost impenetrable barrier through which the most energetic Van Allen belt electrons cannot migrate.
1. http://carbonomics.net/MCcarbon/Carbonomics/13c10/13c10c.html
2. A privileged planet, Gonzalez, page 57
3. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26631-invisible-hissing-doughnut-is-earths-radiation-shield/#.VHshl2dpqClv
4. http://www.nature.com.ololo.sci-hub.cc/nature/journal/v515/n7528/full/nature13956.html
5. http://www.reasons.org/articles/magnetic-field-of-the-earth
6. http://www.reasons.org/articles/a-planet%E2%80%99s-magnetic-field-protects-its-water
7. https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/van-allen-probes-spot-impenetrable-barrier-in-space
8. https://www.space.com/33948-van-allen-radiation-belts.html
9. Improbable planet, Hugh Ross, page 57
10. https://www.livescience.com/29054-earth-core-hotter.html
11. http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=3311
12. https://www.space.com/17777-what-is-earth-made-of.html?_ga=2.165287487.1015402376.1498852369-1252991815.1489538726
https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1408-the-earth-s-magnetic-field
Eric Metaxas: Is God dead? page 45:
One of the simplest examples of this has to do with the size of our planet. We now know if our own Earth were any bigger or smaller, life here could not exist. This is only one of the parameters we have discovered as necessary for life, but it’s a good place to begin. The first question must be why the size of a planet would have anything to do with whether life could flourish, and the first and simplest answer has to do with our magnetic field. Whoever thinks about Earth’s magnetic field? But it happens nonetheless to be magnificently important in many ways. If Earth were any smaller, our magnetic field would be weaker, and what we call the “solar wind” would quickly strip our atmosphere down to almost nothing, so that we would end up like Mars, which is of course a lifeless world. And who thinks about the solar wind? But if we did, we would realize that it is a stream of charged particles—“ion gas” or plasma— made up of electrons, protons, and some alpha rays blasted toward us every moment from the sun. But because of the size of our planet, our “magnetosphere” is just powerful enough to protect us from that radiation. The magnetospheres of the gigantic planets Jupiter and Saturn are also very powerful. And just as happens here on Earth, their magnetospheres deflect the solar wind so that it travels mostly around them instead of to their surfaces. Here on Earth, the solar winds would have long ago stripped away our hydrogen and oxygen, which of course make up water, which could hardly be more important. Mars is not much smaller than Earth, but it is just small enough that its magnetosphere cannot protect it. This is just one aspect of the fine-tuning of Earth’s environment, illustrating how little it would take for life here to be impossible. But it’s a fact that if Earth were slightly smaller, there could be no life here. But if Earth were any larger, we would have other life-killing problems. A larger Earth would have more powerful gravity, so that no water or methane or carbon dioxide could escape our atmosphere, which would be so thick we couldn’t breathe. Our air would be more “viscous.” Earth may be almost as big as a terrestrial planet can get. Again, who would ever think that the size of our planet would be so precisely and perfectly calculated for life? That if it were even slightly smaller or larger there could be no life whatsoever? But the more science learns, the more we see that the science fiction scenarios we have grown up with are hopelessly out of date and have confused us into believing that the conditions for life on any given planet can vary dramatically. But now we know that they cannot.
https://3lib.net/book/18063091/2dbdee
The evidence of the plasma shield
1. In Science Magazine1, a team of geophysicists found another way that the earth’s magnetosphere protects life on the surface. When high-energy ions in the solar wind threaten to work their way through cracks in the magnetosphere, earth sends up a “plasma plume” to block them. The automatic mechanism is described on New Scientist2 as a “plasma shield” that battles solar storms.
2. Joel Borofsky from Space Science Institute says, “Earth doesn’t just sit there and take whatever the solar wind gives it, it can actually fight back.”
3. Earth’s magnetic shield can develop “cracks” when the sun’s magnetic field links up with it in a process called “reconnection.” Between the field lines, high-energy charged particles can flow during solar storms, leading to spectacular auroras, but also disrupting ground-based communications. But Earth has an arsenal to defend itself. Plasma created by solar UV is stored in a donut-shaped ring around the globe. When cracks develop, the plasma cloud can send up “tendrils” of plasma to fight off the charged solar particles. The tendrils create a buffer zone that weakens reconnection.
4. Previously only suspected in theory, the plasma shielding has now been observed. As decribes by Brian Walsh of NASA-Goddard in New Scientist:
“For the first time, we were able to monitor the entire cycle of this plasma stretching from the atmosphere to the boundary between Earth’s magnetic field and the sun’s. It gets to that boundary and helps protect us, keeps these solar storms from slamming into us.”
5. According to Borofsky this observation is made possible by looking at the magnetosphere from a “systems science” approach. Geophysicists can now see the whole cycle as a “negative feedback loop” – “that is, the stronger the driving, the more rapidly plasma is fed into the reconnection site,” he explains. “…it is a system-wide phenomenon involving the ionosphere, the near-Earth magnetosphere, the sunward boundary of the magnetosphere, and the solar wind; and it involves diverse physical processes such as ionospheric outflows, magnetospheric transport, and magnetic-field-line reconnection.”
6. The result of all these complex interactions is another level of protection for life on Earth that automatically adjusts for the fury of the battle:
“The plasmasphere effect is indicative of a new level of sophistication in the understanding of how the magnetospheric system operates. The effect can be particularly important for reducing solar-wind/magnetosphere coupling during geomagnetic storms. Instead of unchallenged solar-wind control of the rate of solar-wind/magnetosphere coupling, we see that the magnetosphere, with the help of the ionosphere, fights back.”
7. Because of this mechanism, even the most severe coronal mass ejections (CME) do not cause serious harm to the organisms on the surface of the Earth.
8. The necessary timings when this system should be activated and the whole complex, very important protection system of plasma shield, battling the solar storms is an evidence of intelligent design, for the purpose of maintaining the life of the living entities on the earth planet.
9. This intelligent designer, the creator of such a great system, all men call God.
10. God exists.
http://carbonomics.net/MCcarbon/Carbonomics/13c10/13c10c.html
1.4: The Creation of the Earth’s Magnetic Field.
The iron catastrophe turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the life that was to eventually emerge on Earth. It was one of a myriad number of factors that would later help to ensure the survival of life on the planet, "As the liquid iron swirled around it produced an invisible force that even today helps keep us alive: the Earth’s magnetic field. Convection currents inside the liquid core behaved like a dynamo and generated electric currents. These transformed our planet into a giant magnet with north and south magnetic poles." "Without the liquid iron core the early atmosphere would have been stripped away and life could never have evolved on our planet. That’s because space is lethal. It’s full of highly dangerous solar particles that can be ten times more deadly than the radiation from a nuclear explosion. These particles originate from the sun when it spews out massive solar flares. A devastating solar wind streams towards the Earth at 250 miles per second. That’s a million miles an hour. If it ever reached the surface of our planet it would strip away the atmosphere in a few thousand years. But the Earth’s magnetic field creates a protective shield and deflects the solar particles. Without the molten core, today our planet would be a sterile rocky sphere with little or no atmosphere. The tragic fate that befell our neighbouring planet, mars."
The earth’s magnetic field is critically important for at least two reasons:
it provides protection for life from high-energy particles originating from both cosmic rays and from our sun, and it provides a shield preventing the depletion of our atmosphere from bombardment by the stream of charged particles ejected from the sun. 5 Because Earth rotates once every 24 hours, this motion causes its iron core to generate a strong magnetic field. This magnetic field shields Earth from cosmic rays, in addition to protecting Earth’s atmosphere from the solar wind. 6
Geologist hypothesize that the core of Earth is composed of a solid iron core and liquid iron outer core. Now two things are important about the cores' composition that makes it magnetic: 1. it is composed of iron and 2. it has a liquid outer core. As you likely know iron is a magnetic element. From physics we know a magnetic field can be induced when a charged ion moves in space. Think of it like electricity the power lines have flowing electrons in them as they move from the power plant to your home they actually induce a magnetic field in the power line. Now for Earth's liquid iron outer core, it is so hot the iron exists in a liquid, ionically charged state. So when the charged liquid iron moves about in the outer core the material induces Earth's magnetic field. Earth's magnetic field allows all life to exist as we know it today. Without our magnetic field Earth would be much like Mars, the magnetic field extends into outer space beyond our atmosphere and deflects high energy particles emitted by the sun. If these high- energy particles were not deflected they would strip Earth's atmosphere, all the oceans would evaporate into space, it would get very cold below freezing, and destroy all life as we know it. 11
At the center of the Earth is the core, which has two parts. The solid, inner core of iron has a radius of about 760 miles (about 1,220 km). It is surrounded by a liquid, outer core composed of a nickel-iron alloy. It is about 1,355 miles (2,180 km) thick. The inner core spins at a different speed than the rest of the planet. This is thought to cause Earth's magnetic field. 12
To develop and maintain a strong, steady magnetic field presents a challenge. Everything depends on the planet’s internal composition. For a rocky planet to maintain a sufficiently strong and enduring magnetic field, its internal composition must closely resemble Earth’s. In particular, it must have a liquid iron outer core surrounding a solid iron inner core and highly specified viscosity and magnetic diffusivity values at the inner-outer core and outer core–mantle boundaries. 9 A team of scientists has measured the melting point of iron at high precision in a laboratory, and then drew from that result to calculate the temperature at the boundary of Earth's inner and outer core — now estimated at 6,000 C (about 10,800 F). That's as hot as the surface of the sun.
The difference in temperature matters, because this explains how the Earth generates its magnetic field. The Earth has a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core, which, in turn, has the solid, but flowing, mantle above it. There needs to be a 2,700-degree F (1,500 C) difference between the inner core and the mantle to spur "thermal movements" that — along with Earth's spin — create the magnetic field. 10
The evidence of the plasma shield
1. In Science Magazine, a team of geophysicists found another way that the earth’s magnetosphere protects life on the surface. When high-energy ions in the solar wind threaten to work their way through cracks in the magnetosphere, Earth sends up a “plasma plume” to block them. The automatic mechanism is described on New Scientist as a “plasma shield” that battles solar storms.
2. Joel Borofsky from Space Science Institute says, “Earth doesn’t just sit there and take whatever the solar wind gives it, it can actually fight back.”
3. Earth’s magnetic shield can develop “cracks” when the sun’s magnetic field links up with it in a process called “reconnection.” Between the field lines, high-energy charged particles can flow during solar storms, leading to spectacular auroras, but also disrupting ground-based communications. But Earth has an arsenal to defend itself. Plasma created by solar UV is stored in a donut-shaped ring around the globe. When cracks develop, the plasma cloud can send up “tendrils” of plasma to fight off the charged solar particles. The tendrils create a buffer zone that weakens reconnection.
4. Previously only suspected in theory, the plasma shielding has now been observed. As described by Brian Walsh of NASA-Goddard in New Scientist:
“For the first time, we were able to monitor the entire cycle of this plasma stretching from the atmosphere to the boundary between Earth’s magnetic field and the sun’s. It gets to that boundary and helps protect us, keeps these solar storms from slamming into us.”
5. According to Borofsky this observation is made possible by looking at the magnetosphere from a “systems science” approach. Geophysicists can now see the whole cycle as a “negative feedback loop” – “that is, the stronger the driving, the more rapidly plasma is fed into the reconnection site,” he explains. “…it is a system-wide phenomenon involving the ionosphere, the near-Earth magnetosphere, the sunward boundary of the magnetosphere, and the solar wind; and it involves diverse physical processes such as ionospheric outflows, magnetospheric transport, and magnetic-field-line reconnection.”
6. The result of all these complex interactions is another level of protection for life on Earth that automatically adjusts for the fury of the battle:
“The plasmasphere effect is indicative of a new level of sophistication in the understanding of how the magnetospheric system operates. The effect can be particularly important for reducing solar-wind/magnetosphere coupling during geomagnetic storms. Instead of unchallenged solar wind control of the rate of solar-wind/magnetosphere coupling, we see that the magnetosphere, with the help of the ionosphere, fights back.”
7. Because of this mechanism, even the most severe coronal mass ejections (CME) do not cause serious harm to the organisms on the surface of the Earth.
8. The necessary timings when this system should be activated and the whole complex, very important protection system of plasma shield, battling the solar storms is an evidence of intelligent design, for the purpose of maintaining the life of the living entities on the earth planet.
9. This intelligent designer, the creator of such a great system, best explains its existence.
The Creation of the Earth’s Magnetic Field. 1
The iron catastrophe turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the life that was to eventually emerge on Earth. It was one of a myriad number of factors that would later help to ensure the survival of life on the planet, "As the liquid iron swirled around it produced an invisible force that even today helps keep us alive: the Earth’s magnetic field. Convection currents inside the liquid core behaved like a dynamo and generated electric currents. These transformed our planet into a giant magnet with north and south magnetic poles." "Without the liquid iron core the early atmosphere would have been stripped away and life could never have evolved on our planet. That’s because space is lethal. It’s full of highly dangerous solar particles that can be ten times more deadly than the radiation from a nuclear explosion. These particles originate from the sun when it spews out massive solar flares. A devastating solar wind streams towards the Earth at 250 miles per second. That’s a million miles an hour. If it ever reached the surface of our planet it would strip away the atmosphere in a few thousand years. But the Earth’s magnetic field creates a protective shield and deflects the solar particles. Without the molten core, today our planet would be a sterile rocky sphere with little or no atmosphere. The tragic fate that befell our neighboring planet, Mars."
A terrestrial planet with plate tectonics is also more likely to have a strong magnetic field since both depend on convective overturning of its interior. And a strong magnetic field contributes mightily to a planet’s habitability by creating a cavity called the magnetosphere, which shields a planet’s atmosphere from direct interaction with the solar wind. If solar wind particles— consisting of protons and electrons—were to interact more directly with Earth’s upper atmosphere, they would be much more effective at “sputtering” or be stripping it away (especially the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen from water). For life, that would be bad news, since the water would be lost more quickly to space. Just as Star Trek’s Enterprise uses a force field to protect it from incoming photon torpedoes, Earth’s magnetic field serves as the next line of defense against galactic cosmic ray particles, after the Sun’s magnetic field and solar wind deflect the lower-energy cosmic rays. These cosmic ray particles consist of high-energy protons and other nuclei, which, together with highly interacting subatomic particles called mesons, interact with nuclei in our atmosphere. These secondary particles can pass through our bodies, causing radiation damage and breaking up nuclei in our cells.
Invisible hissing doughnut is Earth’s radiation shield 3
The rainbow ring the picture above is full of tiny radioactive missiles traveling close to the speed of light, shown as yellow and blue streaks. Far above Earth, this high-energy radiation from space can damage satellite electronics and pose serious health risks to astronauts. The particles also constantly charge towards the planet’s surface, but luckily an invisible shield of plasma bent into a doughnut shape by Earth’s magnetic field, shown in green, keeps radiation at bay. There is an absolute limit on how close it can get – a comfortable 11,000 kilometers from the surface. A phenomenon called “plasmaspheric hiss” seems to be responsible: very low-frequency electromagnetic waves just inside the boundary of the plasma shield that sound like hissing static when played through a speaker. “It’s a very unusual, extraordinary, and pronounced phenomenon,” says Foster. “What this tells us is that if you parked a satellite or an orbiting space station with humans just inside this impenetrable barrier, you would expect them to have a much longer lifetime. That’s a good thing to know.”
Protective shield 8
Data gathered by the probes also showed that the radiation belts shield Earth from high-energy particles. "The barrier for the ultrafast electrons is a remarkable feature of the belts," study lead author Dan Baker, of the University of Colorado in Boulder, said in a statement.
In January 2016, scientists revealed that the shape of the belts depends on what type of electron is being studied. This means the two belts are much more complex; depending on what is being observed, they can be a single belt, two separate belts or just an outer belt (with no inner belt at all.)
Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. In 2012, observations from the Van Allen Probes showed that a third belt can sometimes appear. The radiation is shown here in yellow, with green representing the spaces between the belts.
Earth is surrounded by giant donut-shaped swaths of magnetically trapped, highly energetic charged particles. These radiation belts were discovered in 1958 by the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1. The discovery was led by James Van Allen at the University of Iowa, which eventually caused the belts to be named after him.
Van Allen's experiment on Explorer 1, which launched Jan. 31, 1958, had a simple cosmic ray experiment consisting of a Geiger counter (a device that detects radiation) and a tape recorder. Follow-up experiments on three other missions in 1958 — Explorer 3, Explorer 4 and Pioneer 3 — established that there were two belts of radiation circling the Earth.
This simple picture of the radiation belts persisted for decades until 2012, when a pair of probes was launched to study them in detail. This was the first time that two spacecraft simultaneously studied the radiation belts, trading information with each other to build a bigger picture.
Early probe findings
Part of the interest in the Van Allen belts comes from where they are located. It is known that the belts can swell when the sun becomes more active. Before the probes launched, scientists thought the inner belt was relatively stable, but when it did expand its influence extended over the orbit of the International Space Station and several satellites. The outer belt fluctuated more often.
The Van Allen Probes (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm probes) have several scientific goals, including discovering how the particles — ions and electrons — in the belts are accelerated and transported, how electrons are lost and how the belts change during geomagnetic storms. The mission was planned to last two years, but as of August 2016 the probes were still operating at double the expected mission lifetime.
Usually, scientists take a few months to calibrate their instruments, but a team with the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope asked that their instrument be turned on almost immediately (three days after launch). Their reasoning was they wanted to compare observations before another mission, SAMPEX (Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer), de-orbited and entered Earth's atmosphere.
"It was a lucky decision," NASA said in February 2013, noting that a solar storm had already caused the radiation belts to swell as soon as the instrument was turned on. "Then something happened no one had ever seen before: the particles settled into a new configuration, showing an extra, third belt extending out into space," the agency added. "Within mere days of launch, the Van Allen Probes showed scientists something that would require rewriting textbooks."
Protective shield
Data gathered by the probes also showed that the radiation belts shield Earth from high-energy particles. "The barrier for the ultrafast electrons is a remarkable feature of the belts," study lead author Dan Baker, of the University of Colorado in Boulder, said in a statement.
"We're able to study it for the first time, because we never had such accurate measurements of these high-energy electrons before." [Gallery: NASA's Van Allen Probes]
Complex configuration
This new information helped scientists model the belts' changes. But there was more information to come. In January 2016, scientists revealed that the shape of the belts depends on what type of electron is being studied. This means the two belts are much more complex; depending on what is being observed, they can be a single belt, two separate belts or just an outer belt (with no inner belt at all.)
"The researchers found that the inner belt — the smaller belt in the classic picture of the belts — is much larger than the outer belt when observing electrons with low energies, while the outer belt is larger when observing electrons at higher energies," NASA wrote at the time. "At the very highest energies, the inner belt structure is missing completely. So, depending on what one focuses on, the radiation belts can appear to have very different structures simultaneously."
What is still poorly understood, however, is what happens when particles from the sun hit the belts during a geomagnetic storm. It is known that the number of electrons in the belts changes, either decreasing or increasing depending on the situation. Also, the belts eventually return to their normal shape after the storm passes. NASA said it isn't clear what kind of storm will cause a specific type of belt configuration. Also, the agency noted, any previous observations were done only with electrons at a few energy levels. More work needs to be done.
Luckily, scientists got the chance to observe a storm up close in March 2015, when one of the Van Allen probes happened to be situated inside the "right" spot in Earth's magnetic field to see an interplanetary shock. NASA describes such shocks as similar to when a tsunami is triggered by an earthquake; in this case, a coronal mass ejection of charged particles from the sun creates a shock in specific areas of the belts.
"The spacecraft measured a sudden pulse of electrons energized to extreme speeds — nearly as fast as the speed of light — as the shock slammed the outer radiation belt," NASA wrote at the time. "This population of electrons was short-lived, and their energy dissipated within minutes. But five days later, long after other processes from the storm had died down, the Van Allen probes detected an increased number of even higher energy electrons. Such an increase so much later is a testament to the unique energization processes following the storm."
Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space 7
The Van Allen belts are a collection of charged particles, gathered in place by Earth’s magnetic field. They can wax and wane in response to incoming energy from the sun, sometimes swelling up enough to expose satellites in low-Earth orbit to damaging radiation. The discovery of the drain that acts as a barrier within the belts was made using NASA's Van Allen Probes, launched in August 2012 to study the region. A paper on these results appeared in the Nov. 27, 2014, issue of Nature magazine.
“This barrier for the ultra-fast electrons is a remarkable feature of the belts," said Dan Baker, a space scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder and first author of the paper. "We're able to study it for the first time, because we never had such accurate measurements of these high-energy electrons before." Understanding what gives the radiation belts their shape and what can affect the way they swell or shrink helps scientists predict the onset of those changes. Such predictions can help scientists protect satellites in the area from the radiation. The Van Allen belts were the first discovery of the space age, measured with the launch of a US satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958. In the decades since, scientists have learned that the size of the two belts can change – or merge, or even separate into three belts occasionally. But generally the inner belt stretches from 400 to 6,000 miles above Earth's surface and the outer belt stretches from 8,400 to 36,000 miles above Earth's surface. A slot of fairly empty space typically separates the belts. But, what keeps them separate? Why is there a region in between the belts with no electrons?
Enter the newly discovered barrier. The Van Allen Probes data show that the inner edge of the outer belt is, in fact, highly pronounced. For the fastest, highest-energy electrons, this edge is a sharp boundary that, under normal circumstances, the electrons simply cannot penetrate. "When you look at really energetic electrons, they can only come to within a certain distance from Earth," said Shri Kanekal, the deputy mission scientist for the Van Allen Probes at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and a co-author on the Nature paper. "This is completely new. We certainly didn't expect that." The team looked at possible causes. They determined that human-generated transmissions were not the cause of the barrier. They also looked at physical causes. Could the very shape of the magnetic field surrounding Earth cause the boundary? Scientists studied but eliminated that possibility. What about the presence of other space particles? This appears to be a more likely cause. This animated gif shows how particles move through Earth’s radiation belts, the large donuts around Earth. The sphere in the middle shows a cloud of colder material called the plasmasphere. New research shows that the plasmasphere helps keep fast electrons from the radiation belts away from Earth.
The radiation belts are not the only particle structures surrounding Earth. A giant cloud of relatively cool, charged particles called the plasmasphere fills the outermost region of Earth's atmosphere, beginning at about 600 miles up and extending partially into the outer Van Allen belt. The particles at the outer boundary of the plasmasphere cause particles in the outer radiation belt to scatter, removing them from the belt. This scattering effect is fairly weak and might not be enough to keep the electrons at the boundary in place, except for a quirk of geometry: The radiation belt electrons move incredibly quickly, but not toward Earth. Instead, they move in giant loops around Earth. The Van Allen Probes data show that in the direction toward Earth, the most energetic electrons have very little motion at all – just a gentle, slow drift that occurs over the course of months. This is a movement so slow and weak that it can be rebuffed by the scattering caused by the plasmasphere. This also helps explain why – under extreme conditions, when an especially strong solar wind or a giant solar eruption such as a coronal mass ejection sends clouds of material into near-Earth space – the electrons from the outer belt can be pushed into the usually-empty slot region between the belts. "The scattering due to the plasmapause is strong enough to create a wall at the inner edge of the outer Van Allen Belt," said Baker. "But a strong solar wind event causes the plasmasphere boundary to move inward." A massive inflow of matter from the sun can erode the outer plasmasphere, moving its boundaries inward and allowing electrons from the radiation belts the room to move further inward too.
An impenetrable barrier to ultrarelativistic electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts 4
Here we analyze an extended data set that reveals an exceedingly sharp inner boundary for the ultrarelativistic electrons. Additional, concurrently measured data reveal that this barrier to inward electron radial transport does not arise because of a physical boundary within the Earth’s intrinsic magnetic field and that inward radial diffusion is unlikely to be inhibited by scattering by an electromagnetic transmitter wave fields. Rather, we suggest that exceptionally slow natural inward radial diffusion combined with weak, but persistent, wave–particle pitch angle scattering deep inside the Earth’s plasmasphere can combine to create an almost impenetrable barrier through which the most energetic Van Allen belt electrons cannot migrate.
1. http://carbonomics.net/MCcarbon/Carbonomics/13c10/13c10c.html
2. A privileged planet, Gonzalez, page 57
3. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26631-invisible-hissing-doughnut-is-earths-radiation-shield/#.VHshl2dpqClv
4. http://www.nature.com.ololo.sci-hub.cc/nature/journal/v515/n7528/full/nature13956.html
5. http://www.reasons.org/articles/magnetic-field-of-the-earth
6. http://www.reasons.org/articles/a-planet%E2%80%99s-magnetic-field-protects-its-water
7. https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/van-allen-probes-spot-impenetrable-barrier-in-space
8. https://www.space.com/33948-van-allen-radiation-belts.html
9. Improbable planet, Hugh Ross, page 57
10. https://www.livescience.com/29054-earth-core-hotter.html
11. http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=3311
12. https://www.space.com/17777-what-is-earth-made-of.html?_ga=2.165287487.1015402376.1498852369-1252991815.1489538726
Last edited by Otangelo on Sat Nov 27, 2021 4:53 am; edited 1 time in total
