英语听力文摘 English Digest 463、最大的磁体

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The Biggest Magnet  最大的磁体

A: What’s the biggest magnet ever?

B: Well, that's a great question. Well, for starters you’d have to mention whoppers like the hybrid magnet at the National High Magnetic Field Lab in Tallahassee, Florida. This magnet weighs thirty-four tons and stands twenty-two feet tall.

Giant magnets in hospitals, physics labs, and other facilities help in cutting edge research. However, even a magnet the size of a building can’t compete with a magnet the size of a planet.

A: A magnet the size of a planet?

B: The Earth itself is a magnet! Researchers think it’s the effect of convection currents in our planet’s molten interior that causes the entire Earth to behave as one gigantic magnet, with a North and South Pole.

Whenever you look at a compass, what you’re doing is reading the magnetic field of the planet on which you are standing¹.

A: So that must be the biggest magnet than anywhere.

B: Yet, even a magnet the size of a planet can’t compete with a magnet the size of a star.

A: A star?

B: what about the sun? The sun is a magnet. In this case, the magnetic field is probably generated by swirling² plasma³. Magnetic storms on the sun are powerful enough to have an effect on satellites and communication systems all the way here on Earth.

A: So is that?

B: Not even close. There are things in space that put all of these magnets to shame.

A: Super magnet in space? What are they?

B: Next time.