NASA discovered a third field surrounding the Earth

A NASA research group has detected and measured an invisible field surrounding the Earth for the first time.

CNN reported that it is located about 250 kilometers above the atmosphere and is crucial to understanding how our planet works.

It is an ambipolar electric field that affects negatively charged particles (electrons) and positively charged particles (ions).

According to scientists, it creates an essential balance for the Earth's atmosphere.

The Earth has two other fields: the gravitational field, which keeps our atmosphere attached to the planet, and the magnetic field, which protects it against solar wind.

Deutsche Welle reported that Glyn Collinson of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center led the research published in the scientific journal Nature.

Scientists had already detected a mysterious force at Earth's poles, called the polar wind, but could not explain its mechanism.

“Every time a spacecraft flew over Earth’s poles, it would feel this supersonic wind of particles flowing out into space,” Glyn Collinson, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told BBC Mundo.

He continued: "But we had never been able to measure this before because we didn't have the necessary technology."

The team developed the Endurance rocket to measure this invisible force and launched it in May 2022, departing from Svalbard, a small island north of Norway, reported the BBC.

They managed to measure a change of 0.55 volts in electrical potential, as strong as a watch battery.

"A half a volt is almost nothing — it's only about as strong as a watch battery," Mr. Collinson told BBC's Sky At Night magazine, "But that's just the right amount to explain the polar wind."

Deutsche Welle reported the field acts in two directions, which is why it is called ambipolar. While heavier ions tend to descend towards Earth, lighter electrons try to escape into space.

According to what Mr. Collinson told CNN, it is as if this ambipolar field "raises the heavens."

The researcher explained that the discovery allows us to state that any other planet with an atmosphere also has an ambipolar field.

"Now that we’ve finally measured it, we can begin learning how it’s shaped our planet as well as others over time," Mr. Collinson told Sky At Night.

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