Habitability and the Evolution of Life Under Our Magnetic Shield

Sharmila Bhattacharya describes her job as the Program Director of Space Biology at NASA as “figuring out how to keep astronauts alive in space” (that’s wrong find the actual quote). One thing that keeps us safe here on Earth: the Earth’s magnetic field- but at the moment it is poorly understood. This Eos article discusses what we know about Earth’s magnetic field so far, and the implications it has on studying life on other planets.