Scientists have demonstrated the feasibility of Earth's magnetic field persisting, amidst the hypothetical absence of a solid core.
In a groundbreaking discovery, geophysicists from ETH Zurich and the Southern University of Science and Technology in China have developed a model of the early Earth and simulated how a purely fluid Earth's core could generate a stable magnetic field. This finding resolves a long-standing question about whether Earth’s magnetic field could exist stably without a solid inner core structure.
The simulations, run on the supercomputer "Piz Daint" in Lugano, suggest that the geodynamo effect, driven by convection currents in a completely liquid iron-nickel core and influenced by the Earth's rotation, could have produced a stable magnetic field early in Earth's history before the inner core crystallized about 1 billion years ago.
The experimental setup resembles a giant spinning top, with a plate and a cylinder rotating against each other, and the cylinder filled with eight tons of liquid sodium. This setup had to be extremely robust to withstand torques reaching up to eight million Newton meters, and the building rests on seven pillars anchored 22 meters deep in granite.
According to the hypothesis, magnesium was dissolved in the iron-rich melt of the Earth's core, and as the hot melts rose, the lighter magnesium compounds would precipitate at the boundary with the Earth's mantle. This scenario fits with the prevailing theory that the Moon was formed by exactly such a collision. The source of magnesium in the Earth's core is unclear, with O'Rourke suggesting it could have been delivered by a collision with a Mars-sized body in the Earth's early history.
The new theory suggests that a magnetic field already existed early on, potentially protecting the young Earth against radiation from space earlier than previously thought. The Earth's magnetic field is far more than a compass for navigators; it forms an invisible shield against charged particles from space, without which life as we know it would be hardly possible.
The goal of the DRESDYN project, created in 2018 at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, is to generate a natural magnetic field in the lab, modeled after the Earth's core, to clarify the actual contribution of precession to the dynamo effect. The experiment simulates the effect of precession, a wobbling motion of the Earth's axis, and aims to provide strong evidence that precession plays an important role in the formation of the magnetic field.
This finding could have significant implications for understanding the early history of our planet and the conditions that facilitated the development of complex life. Furthermore, the model helps to better understand the magnetic fields of other celestial bodies, such as Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun.
- The groundbreaking discovery in employment at ETH Zurich and the Southern University of Science and Technology has provided data-and-cloud-computing insights into how the geodynamo effect, driven by science like environmental-science and technology, may have contributed to the existence of the Earth's magnetic field early in its history.
- The simulated model of the early Earth's core, running on technology like supercomputers, has shed light on the potential role of magnesium, a crucial compound in environmental-science, in the formation of the Earth's magnetic field before the inner core crystallized.
- As the DRESDYN project continues to advance in its goal of generating a natural magnetic field in the lab, it could lead to a better understanding of climate-change implications for celestial bodies like Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun, broadening our knowledge beyond our own planet.
