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The Sun
isn't the biggest thing in our Solar System.
And it’s not Jupiter, either.
But close.
It's Jupiter's very own magnetic field.
What would it be like
if Earth’s magnetic field
was as huge as Jupiter’s?
Earth is surrounded
by electrically charged particles
affected by our planet's magnetic field.
This is called the magnetosphere.
And it plays an invisible,
but very important role
in keeping our planet livable.
Without it, we’d be left unprotected
from the Sun's radiation.
Plus, our atmosphere would leak out into the great beyond.
So give a big thanks to our magnetosphere
that extends as far as 65,000 km (40,000 mi) into space.
Our magnetic field
is generated by a dynamo effect inside the Earth's core.
That's when liquid metals in the outer core
create electric currents,
and then the Earth's rotation on its axis
causes these currents to act like a magnet.
If this magnetic field is so great for us,
let’s turn up the dial and make it thousands of times stronger.
Fingers crossed it won't attract meteorites
that would level your city in minutes.
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If you could see Jupiter's magnetic field from Earth,
it would appear nearly three times the size of our Moon.
And that's huge,
considering that Jupiter is a whopping
778 million km (484 million mi) away from us.
When you got close to this behemoth of the Solar System,
you'd see it extending 3 million km (2 million mi)
from Jupiter toward the Sun.
And over 1 billion km (600 million mi) in the other direction,
all the way to Saturn.
If Earth suddenly had a magnetic field this huge,
it would easily swallow up the Moon.
And it would extend out past Mars,
the main asteroid belt and into Jupiter’s orbit.
But there's a catch.
The size of a planet’s magnetic field
depends on how strong that field is
and the strength of the solar winds it comes in contact with.
These solar winds are the reason that
the side of Jupiter's magnetic field facing the Sun
is more compressed,
while the other extends much further.
Like Earth,
Jupiter’s magnetic field is generated in its core by liquid metals.
Enormous amounts of pressure
turn liquid hydrogen into a metallic form.
Only Jupiter’s core is much larger,
significantly hotter and rotates even faster.
So for Earth to have a stronger magnetic field,
our core would have to speed up and get hotter.
Much, much hotter.
And if we somehow made our planetary core
rotate faster than Jupiter's,
our magnetic field
would become 18,000 times more powerful than it is today.
But does stronger always equal better?
One of the bigger issues you’d have to confront
with this new bigger, stronger magnetosphere
is that it would no longer be so good
at protecting the planet from dangerous, charged particles from the Sun.
That's because it would now behave a lot like a particle accelerator.
This would be extra concerning
if you had space travel planned anytime soon.
All because the trapped solar particles
bombard satellites, the ISS and the Moon
with large amounts of radiation.
And nothing would stop them from passing through the ship's exterior.
This would damage all your electronics
unless they were stored inside a
1.5 cm-thick (0.5 in) titanium vault.
And if you were unlucky enough
to be bombarded by these charged particles on a spacewalk,
you could get radiation sickness,
and increase your chances of getting cancer.
This could also cripple your nervous system.
So you definitely don't want to find yourself
floating in space surrounded by a magnetic field with that much kick.
Down on Earth, the aurora borealis,
or northern lights,
would get an upgraded look.
These form when the electrically charged particles
collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms.
Now, you would see the display pulsing.
Oh, and they’d be dangerous, too.
That’s because they’d be emitting X-rays.
And that radiation could get funneled right down to the ground.
This could lead to our poles becoming completely uninhabitable.
Now, how might giving Earth a magnetic field
from a planet 1,300 times its size impact you directly?
Well, try living with a core moving so fast
you'd be dealing with a dramatic increase
in earthquake and volcanic activity.
And let's not forget animals like bees,
sharks and even mud snails
that rely on Earth's magnetosphere
to keep them pointed in the right direction.
They'd all be thrown off course
with potentially disastrous effects on global ecosystems.
Now, what would happen if Earth's magnetic field got so small
that it completely disappeared?
Well, that's a story
for another WHAT IF.