Our Magnetic Earth
Our Magnetic Earth P.K.Ghatak, MD No.66 The Earth feels solid under our feet. We live on the mantle of the Earth in geological terms. The mantle of the earth is made up of soil, sand stones and mountains. The center of the Earth, the core, is made up of iron and nickel. The outer part of the core is liquid due to very high temperature, the primordial heat retained from the day the Earth was born some 4.6 billion years ago. The center part of the core is solid because of very high pressure, about 250 gigapascals. As the earth rotates around on its axis, the liquid outer core rotates in between the solid inner core and mantle. This rotation generates electricity due to the dynamo effect. The liquid iron becomes magnetized. The compass needle points to the north direction; actually, the North is the South pole of the Earth, [the opposite poles attract each other and similar poles repulse.] In our solar system Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have magnetic fields. Jupiter’s magnet...