ESA Launches Program to Monitor Possible Reversal of Earth's Poles
According to a story released by the folks at History, one issue that worries researchers around the world is what would happen if Earth's magnetic poles were reversed. A story on this topic has already been published here in Mega Curioso, where we talked about the likelihood that such an event would occur and what the possible consequences would be for life on our planet.
The Earth's magnetic field - in addition to making the compasses point north or south - has several functions, such as the important role of deflecting radiation particles emitted by the Sun, thus preventing them from interacting with the atmosphere. One consequence of this interaction would be a series of chemical reactions that could trigger the emergence of holes in the ozone layer.
In addition, a reversal could also affect the supply of electricity and the operation of telecommunications satellites, which would cause real chaos on a world scale. The problem is that, according to evidence from scientists, for some time now the weakening of the magnetic field has been observed, and everything seems to indicate that the Earth's poles are preparing to reverse.
Luckily, such events usually take a few thousand years to complete, and for this reason, the European Space Agency has launched a program - called Swarm - to monitor the behavior and changes in the earth's magnetic field. The study consists of detailed data collection through three satellites that, over the next four years, must observe the field from the interior of the planet to the upper layers of the atmosphere.
According to ESA, if a reversal is really in progress, there is a risk that our society will collapse and today's world will fall backwards. Therefore, the program is vitally important for us to be prepared in case this event actually occurs.
