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Cluster watches Earth’s leaky atmosphere
 
28 August 2008

Oxygen escaping from Earth's polar regions
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This artist's impression shows electrically charged oxygen, hydrogen and helium atoms (ions) leaking into space from the Earth atmosphere, over the poles.

ESA's Cluster mission discovered that this accelerated escape is driven by changes in direction of the Earth own magnetic field.

Credits: NASA/ESA

 
 
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