How a Tiny Magnet Could Produce a Force Field Big Enough To Protect a Space Ship [Forcefields]

While many hurdles are keeping us stuck here on the planet, our solar system\’s deadly radiation is chief among them. But scientists now think that a thumb-sized magnet could produce a force field large enough to shield a complete spaceship.

The big fiery ball we call our Sun is continually shooting high-energy particles out into the solar system, a solar wind that yields radiation some 1000 times more powerful than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Earth\’s magnetosphere, produced by our planet\’s molten iron core, deflects the solar wind from our rock and protects our bodies from that radiation.

Scientists once thought a prohibitively huge magnet could be necessary to supply an analogous, spaceship-sized shield, but a British lab has found that a small magnet is sufficient to create a magnetic field powerful enough to deflect an important amount of the charged particles. The phenomenon occurs due to a different reaction between the solar wind and the magnet:

Because the solar wind is a plasma made of charged particles, it too carries a magnetic field. When the solar wind\’s field meets the rocks\’ mini-magnetosphere, the two fields clash, exerting a force on each other. Something has to present. Because the solar wind\’s field is created by free-moving particles, it’s the one who yields, altering its orientation to minimise conflict with the mini-magnetosphere\’s field.

Some parts of the solar wind shift more easily than others. The positively charged protons have nearly 2000 times the mass of the negatively charged electrons, so the latter are rather more easily deflected. The electrons stay at the skin of the magnetic bubble, while the positive charges penetrate further in.

This separation of positive and negative charges generates intense electric fields up to a million times stronger than the magnetic fields that created them. Subsequent solar wind particles hit these electric fields and are strongly deflected. The outcome is a shielding effect rather more powerful than the magnetic field alone may be expected to offer.

Skeptics worry that the higher-energy particles found in space would blast through this type of shield, but the Rutherford Appleton Lab, which made the discovery, is already in confidential talks with NASA to establish the consequences of their find. For more force field fodder, look into the full article at New Scientist. [New Scientist]

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