Scientists have made a ground-breaking discovery of an invisible electric field surrounding Earth which is "as important as gravity."
While Earth's gravitational pull and magnetic field are already well documented, researchers have found the first evidence of a subtle, almost undetectable electric field surrounding the planet.
Dubbed as an "ambipolar electric field" it could be responsible for the unexplained winds of supersonic particles that constantly shoot out from the Earth's poles.
There is also a chance the discovery could even help explain why life formed here on Earth and nowhere else.
An artist's rendition of the field
NASA
The mystery of the field dates back to the 1960s when, as the first spacecraft began to orbit the Earth, space agencies began to notice unusual phenomena over the poles. As the spaceships passed overhead, they would be blasted by a sudden supersonic wind of charged particles erupting from the atmosphere.
While scientists have known for more than 50 years that these "polar winds" exist, no one has yet been able to explain what causes them. Some of the particles may just be heated by unfiltered sunlight and escape like steam from a kettle.
However, others were unexplained, as scientists also found a constant flow of hydrogen ions which were completely cool, despite travelling at supersonic speeds.
It was originally theorised that the particles could be pulled out of the atmosphere by a planet-wide electrical charge somewhere around 150 miles above the surface. Lead author Dr Glyn Collinson, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said: "Something had to be drawing these particles out of the atmosphere."
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The Endurance rocket ship launches from Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard
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At the altitude, atoms in the Earth's atmosphere begin to break apart into negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions, which should sink back to the earth. However, since they have opposite charges, the electrons and ions are tied together by an electric field which pulls in both directions.
The electrons drag their ions upwards like a helium balloon against the force of gravity and lift them out of the atmosphere. Until very recently, the technology to measure this field simply did not exist.
In 2016, researchers began to develop a rocket capable of measuring what they believed to be a very small voltage difference across hundreds of miles. Around the poles, the Earth's magnetic field produces "open field lines" which shoots outwards into space rather than forming closed loops.
NASA's Endurance Mission, which launched from the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard - just a few hundred miles south of the North Pole. The researchers needed to make the journey to this distant island because it is the only place in the world where detecting the electric field is possible.
Space physicist at the University of Leicester Professor Suzanne Imber told the Daily Mail: "The field is generated by electrons, which have some thermal pressure that allows them to rise to higher altitudes on open field lines.
"The electrons are tied to the magnetic field, so this is only detectable over the poles because high magnetic latitudes are where the field lines go from the surface out to space."
Critically, there is some suggestion that the field might be part of the reason why Earth still has water while planets like Venus and Mars have dried up. As intense sunlight split positively charged oxygen ions from the hydrogen in water, this charge could have sucked them into space like a planet-sized vacuum cleaner.
Over time, this process might have emptied all of Venus' water into space and left it as the barren wasteland we now see.
Dr Collinson says: "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."