if you used a compass in space where would it point?

Question

where? really good question?

Answer 1

An interesting question. As you travel away from Earth, its field will grow weaker. The needle will continue to point along the lines of force of the Earth's field until you get close to another object with a magnetic field. Not all planets have one and most moons, including our own, don't have a magnetic field. If you travelled towards the Sun you wouldn't get far before the Sun's much stronger magnetic field took over. If you left the Solar System you'd reach a point where the weak galactic field took over from the Sun's. Just about any location in space has a magnetic field, but mostly, except near a star, these are millions of times weaker than Earth's. An exception is near a neutron star. These have fields of billions of teslas. The Earth's is a few millionths of a tesla.

Answer 2

Simple, at the North Pole; but which North Pole and along which line of force?

If you are close enough to the earth, like low earth orbit, then it would point at the earth's North Pole. In open space it would point to the sun's North Pole.

However, most compasses won't react; the magnetic field isn't strong enough to move the magnet. If you are in an orbit around the equator then the lines of force are at there weakest. The sun has a strong magnetic field, but the power of a magnetic is not that strong so in space it would be hard to detect the sun's North Pole.

Don't forget the compass has to be put on the same line as the magnetic force lines. On the surface this is parallel to the ground, but it space the magnetic lines of force show more of a curvature. The compass needle will have to be in a vacuum to make up for this reduced field strength. Only high grade compasses would do this.

Then you have to account for the magnetic field of other planets, and anything that is electrical generates a magnetic field. So you are going to have a problem finding true north.

The earth doesn’t have a uniform magnetic field. True north is actually in Canada and has been slipping slowly south for a number of years. In Alaska a magnetic compass is useless. There inertial compasses are used; for the same reason they are used in space as well. If the space station tried to use a magnetic compass then north would be spinning around every 30 minutes and that would be on all 3 axis’s.

Answer 3

Yes, very interesting question! A compass is based on a magnetized needle that points in the direction of a magnetic field. You can imagine the magnetic field of earth as that of a bar magnet with ends at the magnetic North and South poles, with field lines connecting the poles. The farther away from Earth, the weaker the field obviously. For the needle in the compass to move, the field strength must exceed some minimum value, so I would say at a certain distance from Earth (assuming there are NO other magnetic fields around) the field strength would not be enough to move the needle.

If there are other fields around the compass, the question would be along which field vector would the needle move, and this would be need to be answered by analysis of the intersection of the magnetic fields themselves.

I imagine just thinking about the situation that the needle might either move to point along a specific field line, or oscillate between two lines, or even, for certain distributions of the position of magnetic fields with respect to the needle, to enter into chaotic movement upon minor disturbances to te compass!

Answer 4

A thumb down to those that said it will point to the nearest north pole!!!

The reason, is that a compass will most likely point to a South Pole! People often get confused because we call North Pole the region where Greenland is. However, magnetically, that's a South Pole.

However, that doesn't mean it will always point towards a South Pole, it will point in the direction of the magnetic field it is on, and that direction is not always pointing towards one of the poles.

In space, if you are not inside any magnetic field, the compass will not point towards anything in specific, and you can change the direction at which it points by moving it around.

Here is what a magnetic field looks like:
http://www.bu.edu/core/cc105/lectures/L07-E&M/Earthmagneticfield.jpg
Note 2 things:
1- Earth's North Pole is actually a South Pole
2- A compass will point in the same direction as the arrows depending on where it is.

Answer 5

You can figure it out, plus have some fun.

Get a magnet that will fit underneath a compass. You can turn it and the compass will point in different directions. I saw a guy do this to someone on a job site. We had the guy convinced that south was north.

It will also point towards flowing electricity. Try getting a compass close to a strong enough electric current, and watch what it does.

Answer 6

All these folks think it will be to a magnetic field. Perhaps that any ferrous material also influences the compass. I bet it will point towards something metallic in your space gear.

Answer 7

either to the north or to the south - depending on what kind of compass and it's trajectory. Most likely answer...north.

Answer 8

To the closest magnetic field. Humans have a slight magnetic pull, so....

Answer 9

itll point to where ever the nearest north magnetic pole on a planet or star is, providing that your close enough

Answer 10

Probably no where unless you where close enough to a planets magnetic pull....