NASA learns why particles are pulled out of the atmosphere.

A collaborative team of international scientists, including those from NASA, has identified a weak, planet-wide electric field surrounding our planet. This phenomenon, initially theorized by researchers decades ago, was recently confirmed through observations made by NASA's Endurance mission.

The agency said in a statement that the team used data from the suborbital Endurance rocket. Launched in May 2022, the rocket ascended to an altitude of 477 miles, recording subtle fluctuations in the electric charge. This breakthrough confirms the existence of Earth's "ambipolar electric field," which may have played a crucial role in the planet's evolution and could aid in the search for habitable exoplanets.

The concept of this energy field dates back to the late 1960s, when spacecraft traversing Earth's polar regions observed an outflow of charged particles, later dubbed the "polar wind." These particles, despite moving at supersonic speeds, were unusually cold, leaving scientists baffled.

"Something had to be pulling these particles out of the atmosphere," Glyn Collinson, lead author and principal investigator of the Endurance mission, was quoted as saying.

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Due to technological constraints, detecting this hypothesized electric field was impossible - until now.
NASA launched the Endurance rocket near the North Pole from Svalbard, an archipelago chosen to optimize the chances of detecting this elusive field.

Svalbard is the only launch site where rockets can fly through the polar wind and capture the measurements scientists need, as explained by Suzie Imber, a coauthor and space physicist at the University of Leicester.

The instruments aboard the rocket are incredibly sensitive to minute changes in electric potential.

"A half a volt is almost nothing - about as weak as a watch battery," Collinson said. "But it's just the right strength to explain the polar wind."

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The team discovered that particles were being propelled into space at supersonic speeds, subject to an outward force more than ten times stronger than gravity. They propose that the ambipolar field intensifies the Earth's ionosphere—a protective layer of electrons that shields us from much of the Sun's radiation.

These findings also suggest that similar electric fields could exist around other planets, such as Venus and Mars.

How the ambipolar field works – explained by NASA

this electric field should begin at around 150 miles (250 kilometers) altitude, where atoms in our atmosphere break apart into negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions.

Electrons are incredibly light — the slightest kick of energy could send them shooting out to space. Ions are at least 1,836 times heavier and tend to sink toward the ground. If gravity alone were in play, the two populations, once separated, would drift apart over time.

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But given their opposite electric charges, an electric field forms to tether them together, preventing any separation of charges and counteracting some of the effects of gravity.

This electric field is bidirectional, or “ambipolar,” because it works in both directions. Ions pull the electrons down with them as they sink with gravity. At the same time, electrons lift ions to greater heights as they attempt to escape to space, like a tiny dog tugging on its sluggish owner’s leash.

Any planet with an atmosphere should have an ambipolar field, according to Collinson. "Now that we've measured it, we can start to understand how it has shaped our planet and others over time," the researcher noted.

The discovery has made its way into a new study, which was published in the journal Nature.

A NASA video on this subject has been uploaded on YouTube.

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