NASA Is Watching a Vast, Growing Anomaly in Earth's Magnetic Field

[mahatmakanejeeves]

NASA Is Watching a Vast, Growing Anomaly in Earth's Magnetic Field

SPACE
29 December 2024
By PETER DOCKRILL


Giant Colorful Anomaly ABove Earth
The South Atlantic Anomaly. (NASA Goddard/YouTube)

NASA has been monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa.

This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers.

The space agency's satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field strength within the anomaly, and the resulting exposure to charged particles from the Sun.

The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) – likened by NASA to a 'dent' in Earth's magnetic field, or a kind of 'pothole in space' – generally doesn't affect life on Earth, but the same can't be said for orbital spacecraft (including the International Space Station), which pass directly through the anomaly as they loop around the planet at low-Earth orbit altitudes.

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[ZonkerHarris]

1. The planet is broken. Humans broke it.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. I doubt that humans caused this.