page_title: Terrella
hierarchical_section_title: Terrella
caption_attribution_description: English: Kristian Birkeland's magnetised en:terrella simulating a en:spiral nebula.
context_page_description: A terrella is a small magnetised model ball representing the Earth, that is thought to have been invented by the English physician William Gilbert while investigating magnetism, and further developed 300 years later by the Norwegian scientist and explorer Kristian Birkeland, while investigating the aurora.
  Terrellas had been used until the late 20th century to attempt to simulate the Earth's magnetosphere, but have now been replaced by computer simulations.
context_section_description: A terrella (Latin for "little earth") is a small magnetised model ball representing the Earth, that is thought to have been invented by the English physician William Gilbert while investigating magnetism, and further developed 300 years later by the Norwegian scientist and explorer Kristian Birkeland, while investigating the aurora.
  Terrellas had been used until the late 20th century to attempt to simulate the Earth's magnetosphere, but have now been replaced by computer simulations.
caption: Kristian Birkeland's magnetised terrella. In this experiment, he noted two spirals which he considered may be similar to that of spiral nebulae.[1][note 1]
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