http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/03/09/recent-solar-flares-affect-mars-much-more-severely-than-earth/ Gadgets, Smartphones, Android Tablets, iPhone, iPad and all the latest tech you'd expect. Sun, 19 May 2013 22:40:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/03/09/recent-solar-flares-affect-mars-much-more-severely-than-earth/#comment-54181 Nicholas Reed Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:50:00 +0000 http://www.mobilemag.com/?p=130569#comment-54181 "Mars has a magnetic field that is only one-tenth as strong as Earth’s." Actually, Mars lacks a structured, global, intrinsic magnetic field entirely.  It does have local patches of magnetized crust which generate lumpy and inconsistent oases of magnetism on its surface, but these are merely the fossil remains of a global magnetic field that failed billions of years ago.  On Earth, our slowly convecting mantle creates a flow of charge within the planet.  Perpendicular to the vector of this flow of electrical charge, magnetic field lines emerge, creating the global magnetic field.  Mars is only about 1/10 the mass of the Earth, and also has a much smaller volume.  As a result, it has a much higher ratio of surface area to volume, which allowed much of its internal heat to escape when the planet was very young.  This stopped the vigorous convection of its mantle, and thus the internal flow of charge that generates a magnetic field on Earth.  Earth's interior heat will also escape to the point the the convection of our mantle is shut down, but it would take longer than the lifetime of the Sun for that to happen. “Mars has a magnetic field that is only one-tenth as strong as Earth’s.” Actually, Mars lacks a structured, global, intrinsic magnetic field entirely.  It does have local patches of magnetized crust which generate lumpy and inconsistent oases of magnetism on its surface, but these are merely the fossil remains of a global magnetic field that failed billions of years ago.  On Earth, our slowly convecting mantle creates a flow of charge within the planet.  Perpendicular to the vector of this flow of electrical charge, magnetic field lines emerge, creating the global magnetic field.  Mars is only about 1/10 the mass of the Earth, and also has a much smaller volume.  As a result, it has a much higher ratio of surface area to volume, which allowed much of its internal heat to escape when the planet was very young.  This stopped the vigorous convection of its mantle, and thus the internal flow of charge that generates a magnetic field on Earth.  Earth’s interior heat will also escape to the point the the convection of our mantle is shut down, but it would take longer than the lifetime of the Sun for that to happen.

]]> http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/03/09/recent-solar-flares-affect-mars-much-more-severely-than-earth/#comment-54178 bob Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:38:00 +0000 http://www.mobilemag.com/?p=130569#comment-54178 world peace world peace

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