Earth's Inner Core Rotation Slower Than Estimated 223
intellitech writes "Scientists at the University of Cambridge believe they have achieved the first accurate estimate of how much faster Earth's core is rotating compared to the rest of the planet. The rate — about one degree every million years — is much slower than previously thought and arises from the complex dynamic between Earth's inner and outer core, which generates Earth's geomagnetic field. Without our magnetic field, Earth's surface would not be protected from charged particles spewing from the Sun, and life would not be able to exist."
Deinococcus radiodurans (Score:4, Informative)
Deinococcus radiodurans takes your puny solar radiation, chews on it, and spits it out as not worthy of food. Go ahead, try and kill me!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans [wikipedia.org]
Re:Life is more robust than that... (Score:4, Informative)
"What oceans?
No magnetic field means there's nothing to stop solar winds from stripping earth of it's atmosphere.
With no atmospheric pressure, the oceans would boil at 0C (and the water vapor would then be blown off into space too)."
Let me fix that for you.
Wild speculation has it that our atmosphere will be stripped off without a magnetic field. Most experts now disagree as Venus is proof that that is not true. Venus uses a ionopause (as does Mars) but it is generated a different way than Earth's magnetic field. Mars is a special instance because something catastrophic happened at one point. The atmopshere had enough pressure to hold liquid water (it can now, but only in low lying areas or short amounts of time), enough for oceans. What kind of atmosphere makes a difference too. Hydrogen verses carbondioxide for example.
The magnetic field does more by keeping us from getting cooked by radiation than anything else.
Re:Or ... (Score:4, Informative)
Venus' atmosphere is heavier (almost all CO2) and is constantly replenished by outgassing at the 800F surface.
Venus also does have a magnetic field large enough to disperse the solar wind.