Vincent Nouyrigat, editor-in-chief of the magazine “Epsiloon” looks back at the discovery made by NASA scientists: they detected an electric field at high altitude.
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This discovery of a high-altitude electric field is a phenomenon that has never been observed before. And it may seem surprising, in 2024, to discover such a phenomenon of planetary magnitude, which had gone unnoticed until then. The announcement has just been made public by NASA, but the feat dates back 2 years, when a rocket equipped with highly sensitive sensors took off from the Svalbard archipelago, beyond the Arctic Circle.
The mission took measurements between 250 and 770 kilometers above sea level, in the heart of the highest layers of the atmosphere. It was able to detect a very small electric field, really tiny, of the order of 0.5 volts, barely the voltage delivered by a watch battery. This is both nothing and a huge discovery.
For over 60 years, researchers have suspected the existence of such a field. At the beginning of the space age, the first satellites recorded a strange flow of particles escaping into space at supersonic speeds at the poles. It was already thought that an electric field was at work to explain this “polar wind”, but no one had managed to measure it.
The measurement that has just been made is in perfect agreement with all past observations. Its intensity makes it possible to explain, at the poles, flows of hydrogen ions on which it exerts a force 10 times greater than Earth’s gravity. Enough to explain the expansion and cohesion of the ionosphere – this thick zone of the atmosphere pulled between electrons trying to escape into space, and heavy ions that are attracted to the ground. In short, everything is explained.
One might think the discovery is anecdotal, but researchers describe this electric field as a major player in our atmosphere, in the same way as gravity and the Earth’s magnetic field – the one that serves as a shield and protects us from the solar wind. A major player that has been little known until now.
With this measurement, scientists will be able to better appreciate the role played by this electric field in the functioning and history of the Earth – and why not Mars or Venus. In fact, the fate of a planet may be played out on a tiny current of 0.5 volts.