Three Catholic University research associates working at NASA have helped prove the existence of a global energy field that scientists have sought for decades. The findings were published in an article in Nature on Aug. 28.
Glyn Collinson, who has since become a research astrophysicist on staff with NASA, served as the lead investigator and lead author. Hassanali Akbari and Ellen Robertson were co-authors and members of the international research team.
Six decades ago, physicists hypothesized the existence of an ambipolar electric field to explain the mysterious force behind the “polar wind,” a continuous outflow of charged particles from the Earth’s poles into space, NASA explained in an announcement.
The research team not only confirmed and quantified the strength of the ambipolar field that launches this energy further up into the upper atmosphere, but also showed that it shapes the sky by increasing the height and density of the ionosphere.
“It counters gravity and basically lifts the skies up. It’s like this conveyor belt that’s lifting the atmosphere into space,” said Collinson in a NASA video about the findings.
The team detected and measured the ambipolar electrical field via a suborbital rocket flight, “Endurance,” launched from the Arctic. The research revealed the field’s role as a force as fundamental as gravity and the magnetic field in shaping our planet.
The Endurance mission team collaborators included The Catholic University of America; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Leicester, U.K.; University of New Hampshire; and Penn State University.
The Catholic University of America, a major physics research center, has a decades-long relationship with NASA in part due to its proximity to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Faculty and researchers, including students, collaborate with NASA scientists on projects critical to advancing knowledge of the universe.
The University is the lead institution for a $64 million cooperative agreement with NASA called “PHaSER” (Partnership for Heliophysics and Space Environment Research) and a member of CRESST II (Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology II), both of which provide top talent to work alongside the agency’s researchers.
Media: Nicole Germain, media-relations@cua.edu or 443-540-3121 (mobile)