In addition to the beneficial warmth and light we receive daily, our sun expels a constant wave of dangerous charged particles called the solar wind. When solar storms occur, flares and coronal mass ejections can be thrown our way at speeds of millions of kilometers per hour. Luckily, movements within earths molten metal core generate a protective magnetic shield around our home planet. Without our magnetosphere to protect us, the solar wind may have long ago stripped away Earth’s atmosphere, leaving Earth looking much more like Mars looks today: barren, dry, and lifeless.
Most of us don’t spend much time thinking about our magnetosphere, but it’s one of the many extraordinary things that make life possible on our little world.
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| Detailed Study, Oil, 8 x 6 inches |
