Smithsonian Magazine on MSN
Pigeons Rely on the Earth’s Magnetic Field to Navigate. Now, Researchers May Have Uncovered How They Do It
In the late 1800s, the French naturalist Camille Viguier proposed an idea that would be dismissed and forgotten for more than ...
NASA detects first “magnetic switchback” near Earth: an energetic change in your space shield that reveals new solar risks.
A strange phenomenon native to the Sun’s environment was spotted in the Earth’s magnetosphere, likely evidence of reactions ...
Earth’s magnetic field seems steady and true — reliable enough to navigate by. Yet, largely hidden from daily life, the field drifts, waxes and wanes. The magnetic North Pole is currently careening ...
Pigeons may sense Earth's magnetic field using special cells in the inner ear. This discovery explains how they navigate long ...
Rocks in West Greenland resemble cake marbled with chocolate and vanilla. They’re now the oldest evidence of Earth’s magnetic field. Isua Supracrustal Belt rocks contain an alternating banded iron ...
New work from Carnegie’s Peter Driscoll suggests Earth’s ancient magnetic field was significantly different than the present day field, originating from several poles rather than the familiar two. It ...
The solar wind flows around Earth's magnetic field. A new NASA study suggests that the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and strength of the magnetic field have been correlated for more than half a ...
Quantum devices that measure Earth's magnetic fields could help replace GPS—if researchers can figure out how to tell when ...
During a brief but dramatic chapter in Earth's history about 41,000 years ago, the planet’s magnetic field nearly collapsed. What followed was a cascade of environmental and biological changes that ...
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