Historically, Earth's North and South magnetic poles have flipped every 200,000 or 300,000 years-except right now, they haven't flipped successfully for about 780,000 years. But the planet's magnetic field is at long last showing signs of shifting. Although there's no way to know yet for sure, it could be gearing up to flip once more, according to Undark Magazine. And that possibility is raising new speculation about what that means for planetary life. Our planet's magnetic field protects us from lethal levels of radiation from phenomena like solar rays. The Earth's magnetic field extends out from electrical currents created by the metals in its core, generating invisible lines that touch back down at the planet's opposing magnetic poles. Cosmic radiation expert Daniel Baker, director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, believes that the next pole reversal could likely render some areas of the planet unlivable. Because we haven't reached that point yet, scientists are using imagery from satellites to track the magnetic field's movements. Since 2014, Swarm - a trio of satellites from the European Space Agency - has allowed researchers to study changes building at the Earth's core, where the magnetic field is generated. Their observations ... could indicate that the field is preparing to flip. A weakened field might allow more radiation into our atmosphere than we're used to, but it wouldn't be deadly, according to NASA.