Gizmorama - June 25, 2014

Good Morning,

Did you hear about the largest diamond ever found? You might be asking, "where is it?" Would you believe in space, because it's about the same size as the planet Earth. What do you think that's worth?

Learn about this interesting story and more from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click GopherArchives

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*-- European Space Agency says magnetic north is drifting southward --*
LONDON (UPI) - The Earth's magnetic north pole is drifting southward towards Siberia, according to researchers at the European Space Agency (ESA).

As part of ESA's Swarm mission, scientists have been mapping the planet's magnetic field with the help three satellites. Each satellite is equipped with several Earth-studying tools -- including magnetometers, which measure the magnetic field's strength and direction.

"I started my career in magnetometry and the accuracy we had then in the laboratories was less than what we can fly in space now," Volker Liebig, the director of Earth observation at ESA, recently told BBC News. "So what we have on Swarm is fantastic, but we need long time series to understand fully the Earth's magnetic field, and we will get that from this mission."

Results from the Swarm mission suggest that not only is magnetic north on the move, but the entire magnet field is weakening, leaving Earth potentially exposed to additional cosmic radiation. This, however, is considered normal, with the magnet cloak likely to regain its strength in the near future.

Analysis of ancient rocks buried deep in the Earth lead scientists to believe Earth's magnetic north and south poles switch every few million years. The latest from Swam suggests the poles may once again be preparing to trade sides; though the flip-flop itself takes several thousand years.

A study published in 2011 surmised that the shifting magnetic poles are affected by the movement of Earth's tectonic plates.

Currently, Swarm satellites have only honed in on the general magnetic field generated by Earth's molten core. But scientists expect to study more delicate magnetic fields in the future, such as the field generated by the movement of the world's oceans.

"These initial results demonstrate the excellent performance of Swarm," said Rune Floberghagen, ESA's Swarm Mission Manager. "With unprecedented resolution, the data also exhibit Swarm's capability to map fine-scale features of the magnetic field."


*- Dead, cold white dwarf star my be a diamond -*
GREEN BANK, W.Va. (UPI) - A newly observed white dwarf star may be the coldest ever discovered. The dead star is so cold, in fact, astronomers believe its carbon has crystalized, making it the largest diamond ever found -- about the same size as Earth.

Adding to its litany of superlatives, the diamond of a star is also one of the faintest ever discovered. It may sparkle up close, but it's invisible to humans. The only reason it was spotted is because it has a much more conspicuous orbital companion -- a pulsar formed from a supernova that emitted great streams of radio waves out into the cosmos.

The two stars are located in the constellation Aquarius and were found with the help of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and its Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.

"It's a really remarkable object," said astronomer David Kaplan, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who led the study of the new diamond star. "These things should be out there, but because they are so dim they are very hard to find."

The discovery of the cold, crystalized star is detailed in the latest edition of the Astrophysical Journal.

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