Explorers have long trusted compasses to navigate Earth's land and oceans, using our planet's global magnetic field as their guide. But what happens when you take a compass beyond Earth - into orbit, ...

If all the compasses in the world started pointing ... Such reversals in the Earth's magnetic field, they'd tell you, are, roughly speaking, as common as ice ages. That is, they're terrifically ...

Primarily, the compass was used for geomancy for a long time before it was used for navigation Ancient Chinese alchemists realized that the magnetite ore would point towards a magnetic north. Their ...

The needle will turn and then come to a complete stop. It will be facing magnetic north. You can check this by placing the compass next to the bowl. The needle is being affected by the Earth’s ...

Dancing turtles have proved for the first time that some animals use Earth's magnetic field to create a personal map of their ...

Magnetotactic bacteria synthesize magnetic iron nanominerals, which function as tiny compasses that allow the microbes to navigate using Earth's geomagnetic field. Earth's iron cycle is a very ...

When I learned recently that our planet's magnetic shield is rapidly weakening and may be ready to reverse its polarity, causing compasses to point south, I immediately wondered what that would ...