Question: Do you ever use astronomy in your job?

Laura Roberts Artal answered on 21 Jun 2013:

Not astronomy as such, no. But, I do need to know a little about how the sun works and what how the Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the particles the sun chucks out during a solar storm.

The magnetic field protects us from the harmful particles emitted during a solar storm and from solar wind. It deflects these nasty particles and sends them towards the north & south poles. That’s why you only get to see the northern lights (aurora borealis) at high latitudes.If we didn’t have the magnetic field we think it is likely the Earth would have lost it’s atmosphere, like Mars did and that would mean there would be no water on the surface of the Earth and is unlikely life would have evolved.