Earth’s Magnetic Field Driving Oxygen Out of Atmosphere, Into Space

New 2001 to 2003 collected data that has been collected by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Cluster—”their flying quartet of satellites”—has discovered that our own planet’s magnetic field is pushing oxygen out of the atmosphere into space. Cluster has found what is driving this oxygen “push”, seemingly involving beams of electrically charged oxygen atoms called ions, moving from the polar regions of Earth into space. Cluster also has measured the beams influence by the magnetic field—their strength and direction.
The individual in charge of the Cluster research team of space scientists is Hans Nilsson, Swedish Institute of Space Physics. Analyzing the data, the team found that the quickening movements of the oxygen ions were caused by the magnetic field’s changing direction, similar to a sling-shot effect. “Cluster allowed us to measure the gradient of the magnetic field and see how it was changing direction with time,” says Nilsson, noting that the four Cluster spacecrafts allowed a better way to measure the magnetic field’s strength and directions over a wider area.
Oxygen shortages are serious concerns, not only for people but for Earth, even though ESA says presently there is nothing to worry about. The earth’s crust consists of approximately 50% of oxygen, in addition to 42% of healthy vegetation, 17% aerated dry soil, 85% seawater, and 46% of igneous rocks. As far as humanity is concerned, oxygen shortages in the blood are a common factor in as asthma, bronchitis, variations of COPD, and emphysema. Even the minutest shortage will have some bearing on Earth and its processes. “Insufficient oxygen in our cells causes pain to be experienced more acutely than when oxygen supplies are ample” Dr. Samuel C. West, “The Golden Seven plus 1″. The rain forests are a significant supply of about 10% oxygen, creating plant life but the oceans and their many forms of blue green algae are the major suppliers of the earth’s supply of oxygen.
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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
