Since 2010, the best estimate of the age of Earth's magnetic field has been 3.45 billion years. But now a researcher responsible for that finding has new data showing the magnetic field is far older. John Tarduno, a geophysicist at the University of Rochester and a leading expert on Earth's magnetic field, and his team of researchers say they believe the Earth's magnetic field is at least four billion years old.

"A strong magnetic field provides a shield for the atmosphere," said Tarduno, "This is important for the preservation of habitable conditions on Earth."

The findings by Tarduno and his team have been published in the latest issue of the journal Science.

Earth's magnetic field protects the atmosphere from solar winds--streams of charged particles shooting from the Sun. The magnetic field helps prevent the solar winds from stripping away the atmosphere and water, which make life on the planet possible. 

Earth's magnetic field is generated in its liquid iron core, and this "geodynamo" requires a regular release of heat from the planet to operate. Today, that heat release is aided by plate tectonics, which efficiently transfers heat from the deep interior of the planet to the surface. But, according to Tarduno, the time of origin of plate tectonics is hotly debated, with some scientists arguing that Earth lacked a magnetic field during its youth. 

Given the importance of the magnetic field, scientists have been trying to determine when it first arose, which could, in turn, provide clues as to when plate tectonics got started and how the planet was able to remain habitable. 

Fortunately for scientists, there are minerals--such as magnetite--that lock in the magnetic field record at the time the minerals cooled from their molten state. The oldest available minerals can tell scientists the direction and the intensity of the field at the earliest periods of Earth's history. In order to get reliable measurements, it's crucial that the minerals obtained by scientists are pristine and never reached a sufficient heat level that would have allowed the old magnetic information within the minerals to reset to the magnetic field of the later time.