Another sign that Earth has a magnetic field is that a compass points north wherever you are on the planet. But how can we tell if other planets or bodies in the solar system have magnetic fields?

The Earth is the only planet in the universe that we know for sure supports life. While it is likely that many others do, it ...

Stars have magnetic fields that initially get stronger as the speed of the star’s rotation increases. There are still aspects ...

Getty Images/iStockphoto Now, researchers believe they’ve uncovered an alien planet that could have its own magnetic field, indicating it could be supporting extraterrestrial beings. In a paper ...

“The same physics that powers the aurora on the star would also allow energy to get dumped onto the planet, producing planetary aurorae if it has its own magnetic field and atmosphere," Pineda said.

The hunt for extraterrestrial life is only one reason to wonder about Earth's magnetic field. Not every planet has a magnetosphere, and researchers aren't quite sure what kicked Earth's into gear.

(To learn what happens to a planet when it loses its magnetic field, you only need to look at Mars.) Earth has two sets of poles, geographic pole and magnetic poles. Earth's magnetic field can be ...

The magnetic fields of both planets, which are not that far apart in mass, are not dipolar. Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn all have dipolar magnetic fields, meaning they have a north and south pole ...

Credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)/NASA The chances of a planet hosting life depends ... New research looks at the impact a star's magnetic field has on exoplanet habitability.

Mars' global magnetic field may have hung around for 200 million years longer than scientists had thought, possibly giving life a longer window to take hold on the Red Planet. When you purchase ...

Researchers have now identified a prospective Earth-sized planet in another solar system as a prime candidate for also having a magnetic field -- YZ Ceti b, a rocky planet orbiting a star about 12 ...

with each speaker representing a different spot on Earth to demonstrate how the planet’s magnetic field has fluctuated over the past 100,000 years. “The rumbling of Earth’s magnetic field is ...