this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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ok! time for all those years of science to finally pay off:
Would you still love "her" if you knew that, every single second, thousands of waves of extreme radiation from the Sun, traveling at a million light-years per millisecond, hits our planet's atmosphere? These waves slowly erode one of the only protections that we have against the Sun. But don't worry, this planet has several more tricks up -- and under -- the crust of the Earth. The iron core of the earth emits a geomagnetic field that extends into space, creating a region called the magnetosphere. This magnetosphere blocks most of the Sun's deadly rays, deflecting them back into space.
(also I didn't get this off of Google. I just have a really good memory. also I added the bolded words)
You're only off by a factor of about 30 quadrillion.
Light (famously a type of radiation), takes 1 year to travel a light-year, hence the name.
If you want to make it sound impressive, then astronomical units aren't the right choice. The sun is only 1 AU away from us after all.
A million lightmicroseconds every second
Fixed that for them
Um, yes because without those waves plants wouldn't grow and we wouldn't be alive.
Gonna need a citation on that one! ;)
kidding aside, Mars is a great example of what will happen to Earth should our core stop generating our magnetic field. Also... Auroras!
Yes! The Auroras are the result of the Sun's rays that were rebounded and sent to both of the poles. Also, I don't know the exact speed, but its really reeeeeaaaaalyyyyy fucking fast. Like, my brain can't even fathom how fast it is. I can't imagine the scientists that study this every single day think. Are they like "oh shit the sun is just about to shart some deadly fucking radiation time to do some science to make it stop" I am actually convinced that science is magic, and every scientist that ever lived had to say some oath to never tell people that they're wizards. Meanwhile we're like "oh ok they have this tool that looks like a medieval torture device they either must be really smart or stole that from a museum or time-traveled and yoinked that shit and brought it back here"
If those deadly rays are getting reflected back into space, how do astronauts protect themselves against it? Is the ISS beneath the magnetosphere?
On the side of the Earth facing the sun, the magnetosphere extends about 40,000km into space. On the side facing away from the sun, the solar wind stretches the magnetosphere into a tail that extends well beyond the Moon's orbit. The ISS orbits at an altitude of about 400km; it is well within the magnetosphere.
Because it is above the majority of the atmosphere (and also because it just barely passes through the lowest part of the Van Allen radiation belts), astronauts in the ISS are exposed to higher levels of radiation. However, the ISS has shielding specifically designed to minimize radiation, and astronauts living there are considered to be within safe levels of exposure.
I don't know. science, I guess?