magnetic fields_03.doc- stealth skater（磁fields_03。doc -隐形溜冰者）.docVIP

archived as /Documents/MagneticField_x.doc more of Dan Burisch is at /Burisch.htm note: because important web-sites are frequently here today but gone tomorrow, the following was archived from /wgbh/nova/transcripts/3016_magnetic.html on February 20, 200 . This is NOT an attempt to divert readers from the aforementioned website. Indeed, the reader should only read this back-up copy if it cannot be found at the original authors site. Magnetic Storm Earths protective Magnetic Field - PBS/NOVA Narrator: Theres a region of our planet that no human being has ever visited. No one has ever seen this place. Yet what happens here affects every one of us every day of our lives. Its 2,000 miles beneath our feet. The Earths molten core. Here a vast ocean of liquid iron generates an invisible force -- the Earths magnetic field. Its what makes our compasses point North. But it does a lot more. It helps to keep the Earth a living planet. Our neighbors Venus and Mars have only weak magnetic fields, which means theyre unprotected from the deadly radiation sweeping through the solar system. The Earth, on the other hand, exists within a vast magnetic cocoon -- a force-field that for billions of years has sheltered us on our journey through space. But now scientists have made a startling discovery. It seems theres a storm brewing deep within the Earth -- a storm that is weakening our vital magnetic shield. Peter Olson (Johns Hopkins University): The Earths magnetic field has been our protector for millennia. And now, it appears that its about to go away. John Shaw (University of Liverpool): The Earths magnet field is getting weaker rapidly. Mario Acuna (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center): We cannot guarantee that the magnetic field of the Earth is still going to be there a thousand years from today. Narrator: Is our invisible shield about to disappear? Jeremy Bloxham (Harvard University): The question is not if thats going to happen … its when