Earth & SkyGreek → English
Magnetopause
/mæɡˈniːtoʊpɔːz/noun
The boundary where Earth's magnetic field holds off the solar wind.
The Greek roots
μαγνῆτις λίθος
magnêtis líthos
stone of Magnesia
παῦσις
paûsis
a stopping, ceasing
Literally: “where the magnet stops”
The story of the word
The magnet half goes back to Μαγνησία, a district in Thessaly whose ore pulled at iron; the same place-name also produced magnesium and manganese, two elements that have nothing magnetic about them. The compound was made in the 1960s once spacecraft could find the boundary. It is not fixed: a strong gust of solar wind can push it inside the orbit of a geostationary satellite.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1960s
Same family
magnetmagnesiummanganeseheliopause
In a sentence
The storm compressed the magnetopause and left several satellites outside it.