Tiny Earth

Why does our planet react like a giant magnet? A scientist is creating an Earth model to understand that.

Geologist Lathrop expects this 30-ton ball to spin to create a magnetic field similar to Earth's magnetic field.Photo: Popsci.

Dan Lathrop needs a bigger Earth. His old model is only 0.6 meters wide and weighs 220 kg, about 20 million times smaller than reality. And after four years of experimentation, it failed to create an Earth-like magnetic field - the coat protects us from solar radiation and makes compass navigation systems all turn north. .

Lathrop, a professor of physics and geology at the University of Maryland, USA, thinks the key to creating a magnetic field is the size of the object. A larger sphere with many hot metals is boiling in its heart, like the Earth's iron core, which can produce enough mass to create this spherical magnetic field.

Therefore, he spent $ 1.6 million in prize money to build a fake Earth three meters high and weighed 30 tons.

When the Earth's core rotates, it produces a magnetic field that deflects the solar radiation.Photo: Paul Wootton.

The Earth's magnetic field has reversed hundreds of times throughout its history and has been weakening by about 10% since it began monitoring in the 1830s. It is currently preparing for a new reversal. , maybe a little more weak, and make people "exposed" to dangerous sun particles.

To find out, Lathrop spent the past summer checking his new sphere and its rotation mechanism. This fall, he will pump a liquid sodium core, spinning at a rate of 90 miles per hour, and check what happens.

Although European scientists have created magnetic fields, no one has built a model similar to Earth.

If Lathrop's tiny Earth succeeds in creating from its own wall, this could help scientists develop predictive models of what happens to this wall.