NASA rocket to measure Earth's life-supporting secret: A weak electric field NASAGoddard
"It's one of the most fundamental questions in all of science: Why are we here? And it's what Endurance is after," said Glyn Collinson, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and principal investigator for NASA's Endurance mission.
Earth is a watery planet, one of the key reasons it can support life. Yet billions of years ago, you might have said something similar about Venus. Scientists believe Venus was once much wetter than it is today, but for reasons we still don't fully understand, it has since dried out. Figuring out why could pinpoint a key difference from Earth—and reveal a hidden ingredient for a habitable planet.
These findings from Venus, however, raised questions about Earth. Venus' electric potential is created by its ionosphere—the electrically charged outer layer of its atmosphere. But Earth has an ionosphere as well. So does Earth have a similar electric potential, and if so, why is our water still around?
"We think one of the reasons Earth may be habitable is because we have this very weak electrical potential," Collinson said. The Endurance team estimates a strength of about 0.3 volts, some 25 times weaker than on Venus and so weak it has foiled all previous attempts at measurement."It's not even as strong as a watch battery—but it should be there," Collinson added.
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