If you heat up a magnet it stops being a magnet. So why is the molten metal in the earths core a magnet if it’s so hot?Also if you had a pure iron asteroid that was going to miss the earth but go really close nearby would the magnetic field have any pull on it not caused by gravity?
In: Planetary Science
Only permanent magnets (the ones that get their magnetic field from the alignment of their molecules/atoms) lose their magnetism when heated. IIRC the Earth’s core mostly gets the magnetism from being a giant rotating mass of conductive material. You can have a fully liquid electromagnet if you pour red hot iron into a high melting temperature coil form and stick electrodes into the ends.
> pure iron asteroid that was going to miss the earth but go really close nearby would the magnetic field have any pull on it not caused by gravity?
Technically yes, practically you’d get a more significant reaction trying to push it around by hand. The earth’s magnetic field is honestly piss weak – hence why iron objects don’t randomly fly about the room and you need to suspend magnets on a string/pin to allow them to turn to north/south.
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