How does a magnetic compass work? Well, it’s all down to basic physics and human ingenuity. The key component of a standard baseplate compass is its magnetized needle, which is allowed to spin freely ...

Earth’s magnetic field has been acting restless, with the north magnetic pole racing across the Arctic and the field itself weakening in some regions. Those shifts have fueled viral claims that a ...

The poles of the sun’s magnetic field are fading away. But don’t panic: it’s all part of our host star’s usual 11-year cycle of activity. Over the past couple of years, solar activity—as measured by ...

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The planet's magnetic North Pole, where compasses point, has been unexpectedly moving toward Russia. While shifting is not a rare occurrence, the pole is moving both faster and differently than it was ...

High above the Sun’s blazing equator lie its mysterious poles, the birthplace of fast solar winds and the heart of its magnetic heartbeat. For decades, scientists have struggled to see these regions, ...

For the first time in history, we re seeing the Sun from an angle no one ever has: from above and below its poles. Thanks to the European Space Agency s Solar Orbiter and its tilted orbit, scientists ...

The magnetic north pole just isn’t where it used to be. Ever since the British polar explorer James Clark Ross first identified it on the Boothia Peninsula in Canada’s Nunavut territory in 1831, ...

Scientists explain why there’s no merit to recent claims blaming Earth’s magnetic poles for global warming—and what those geomagnetic shifts really mean. A visualization of the magnetic lines of force ...