Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.Earth’s magnetic field plays a key role in making our planet habitable. The protective bubble over the atmosphere shields the planet from solar radiation, winds, cosmic rays and wild swings in temperature.However, Earth’s magnetic field almost collapsed 591 million years ago, and this change, paradoxically, may have played a pivotal role in the blossoming of complex life, new research has found.“In general, the field is protective. If we had not had a field early in Earth history water would have been stripped from the planet by the solar wind (a stream of energized particles flowing from the sun toward Earth),” said John Tarduno, a professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester in New York and senior author of the new study.“But in the Ediacaran, we had a fascinating period in the development of the deep Earth when processes creating the magnetic field … had become so inefficient after billions of years, that the field almost completely collapsed.”The study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment on May 2, found that Earth’s magnetic field, which is created by the motion of molten iron in Earth’s outer core, was significantly weaker than its current strength for a period of at least 26 million years. The discovery of the sustained weakening of Earth’s magnetic field also helped resolve an enduring geological mystery about when Earth’s solid inner core formed.This time frame lines up with a period known as the Ediacaran, when the very first complex animals emerged on the seafloor as the per …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnSign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.Earth’s magnetic field plays a key role in making our planet habitable. The protective bubble over the atmosphere shields the planet from solar radiation, winds, cosmic rays and wild swings in temperature.However, Earth’s magnetic field almost collapsed 591 million years ago, and this change, paradoxically, may have played a pivotal role in the blossoming of complex life, new research has found.“In general, the field is protective. If we had not had a field early in Earth history water would have been stripped from the planet by the solar wind (a stream of energized particles flowing from the sun toward Earth),” said John Tarduno, a professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester in New York and senior author of the new study.“But in the Ediacaran, we had a fascinating period in the development of the deep Earth when processes creating the magnetic field … had become so inefficient after billions of years, that the field almost completely collapsed.”The study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment on May 2, found that Earth’s magnetic field, which is created by the motion of molten iron in Earth’s outer core, was significantly weaker than its current strength for a period of at least 26 million years. The discovery of the sustained weakening of Earth’s magnetic field also helped resolve an enduring geological mystery about when Earth’s solid inner core formed.This time frame lines up with a period known as the Ediacaran, when the very first complex animals emerged on the seafloor as the per …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
