NAIL: Space weather always attracts interest, and our ST5 question board has received a lot of submissions.
Are you ready to start answering some questions from our viewers?
SLAVIN: Absolutely.
NAIL: Great. Our first question comes from Marco from Tuscany:
Where did the magnetosphere come from, and why is it important to know more about it?
SLAVIN: Well, I think I've actually covered that to a fair degree already.
Again, it's basically the upward extension of the Earth's magnetic field.
The Earth's magnetic field is generated deep in the core of the planet, where the rocks are molten.
And it's basically the convection, the motion of the molten interior of the Earth that generates this magnetic field.
And fortunately, magnetic fields are just a natural shield against certain types of radiation.
But it's not a perfect shield, and this is part of the reason that we need to study it and understand it better.
We need to know exactly what it's shielding, when it's shielding us,
and what exactly it's shielding us from, so that we can properly forecast what's going to get through.