The American space agency NASA says it has confirmed the long-suspected existence of an electric field that surrounds Earth.
美国宇航局表示，它已经证实了人们长期以来怀疑的地球周围存在电场。
A rocket named Endurance gathered the information that led to the confirmation. Endurance launched from Norway on May 11, 2022. The launch site was the closest possible to the North Pole.
名为“耐力”的火箭收集了导致确认的信息。耐力号于 2022 年 5 月 11 日从挪威发射。发射场是距离北极最近的发射场。
Endurance reached a top altitude of 768 kilometers. The rocket captured data on the electric field during its 19-minute flight before splashing down in the sea, off the coast of Greenland.
耐力达到最高海拔768公里。火箭在 19 分钟的飞行过程中捕获了电场数据，然后落入格陵兰岛海岸附近的海中。
NASA says that since the 1960s, spacecraft flying over Earth’s poles have recorded collections of particles flowing from the planet’s atmosphere into space. But the cause of these outflows long remained a mystery. Scientists lacked the technology and tools to confirm an electric field and further explore it.
NASA 表示，自 20 世纪 60 年代以来，飞越地球两极的航天器记录了从地球大气层流入太空的粒子集合。但这些资金外流的原因长期以来一直是个谜。科学家缺乏确认电场并进一步探索电场的技术和工具。
But the development in recent years of new observation methods and instruments led NASA to plan the Endurance mission. So the agency built the rocket and a new data instrument and planned the launch.
但近年来新观测方法和仪器的发展促使美国宇航局规划了“耐力”任务。因此，该机构建造了火箭和新的数据仪器并计划了发射。
NASA scientist Glyn Collinson, an expert in space instrument design, led the Endurance mission.
美国宇航局科学家格林·科林森（Glyn Collinson）是空间仪器设计专家，领导了“耐力”任务。
Collinson explains in a video that scientists believe the electric field they searched for was one of three energy fields affecting Earth. The others are gravitational and magnetic. Scientists are calling the third energy field the “ambipolar electric field.”
科林森在视频中解释说，科学家相信他们寻找的电场是影响地球的三个能量场之一。其他的是引力和磁力。科学家将第三种能量场称为“双极电场”。
A NASA statement says scientists believe the ambipolar field is an influential driver of the “polar wind.” They described the wind as “a steady outflow of charged particles into space that occurs above Earth’s poles.” Scientists believe the ambipolar electric field counteracts some of the effects of gravity.
美国宇航局的一份声明称，科学家们相信双极场是“极地风”的一个有影响力的驱动因素。他们将风描述为“发生在地球两极上方的带电粒子稳定地流入太空”。科学家相信双极电场可以抵消重力的一些影响。
This electric field lifts the charged particles in Earth’s upper atmosphere “to greater heights than they would otherwise reach,” NASA said. Scientists had theorized this electric field began at around 250 kilometers high. This is where atoms in our atmosphere break apart into negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions. This activity helps form a part of Earth’s atmosphere known as the ionosphere.
美国宇航局表示，这个电场将地球高层大气中的带电粒子提升到“比它们本来能达到的更高的高度”。科学家们推测这个电场始于大约 250 公里高处。这是大气中的原子分裂成带负电的电子和带正电的离子的地方。这种活动有助于形成地球大气层的一部分，称为电离层。
NASA noted the Endurance mission permitted researchers to successfully identify and measure “a planet-wide electric field thought to be as fundamental to Earth as its gravity and magnetic fields.” A study describing the team’s results recently appeared in the publication Nature .
美国宇航局指出，“耐力”任务使研究人员能够成功识别和测量“一个被认为与地球的重力和磁场一样重要的全行星电场”。一项描述该团队研究结果的研究最近发表在《自然》杂志上。
NASA said studying the ambipolar electric field is important because it “may have shaped our planet’s evolution in ways yet to be explored.” In addition, the agency said further study of this field can help scientists better understand other planets and possibly find ones with conditions that may support life.
美国宇航局表示，研究双极电场很重要，因为它“可能以尚未探索的方式塑造了我们星球的演化”。此外，该机构表示，对该领域的进一步研究可以帮助科学家更好地了解其他行星，并可能找到具有支持生命生存条件的行星。
Leader Collinson said that, during the mission, the instrument on the rocket was able to measure an electrical voltage of 0.55 volts. He said this level is very low, about the same voltage used to power a watch battery . But, he noted that 0.55 volts was “just the right amount” to explain the outflows of particles driving the polar wind.
领队科林森表示，在任务期间，火箭上的仪器能够测量到 0.55 伏的电压。他说这个电平非常低，大约与手表电池供电的电压相同。但是，他指出 0.55 伏“正好可以解释驱动极地风的粒子外流”。
Collinson said he finds the results “incredibly important” because the newly confirmed electric field can counter the effects of gravity and “basically lifts the skies up.” He described the field as a kind of “ conveyor belt that’s lifting this atmosphere up into space.”
科林森说，他发现这些结果“极其重要”，因为新证实的电场可以抵消重力的影响，“基本上可以让天空升起”。他将这个领域描述为一种“将大气层提升到太空的传送带”。
Alex Glocer is a project scientist for the Endurance mission and was a co-writer of the study. He said he agrees with those findings. “That’s more than enough to counter gravity – in fact, it’s enough to launch them upwards into space at supersonic speeds,” Glocer said. Supersonic describes speeds that are greater than the speed of sound.
亚历克斯·格洛瑟（Alex Glocer）是耐力任务的项目科学家，也是该研究的合著者。他说他同意这些调查结果。格洛瑟说：“这足以对抗重力——事实上，这足以将它们以超音速向上发射到太空。”超音速描述的是大于声速的速度。
The team said the study results suggest the ambipolar electric field also greatly increases the density of the ionosphere at higher atmospheric positions.
研究小组表示，研究结果表明，双极电场还大大增加了大气高层位置电离层的密度。
Collinson said, “Any planet with an atmosphere should have an ambipolar field. Now that we’ve finally measured it, we can begin learning how it’s shaped our planet as well as others over time.”
科林森说：“任何有大气层的行星都应该有双极场。现在我们终于测量到了它，我们可以开始了解它如何随着时间的推移塑造我们的星球以及其他星球。”