'Amateur Astronomy'. Table of the Magnetosphere in the Solar System

Table of the Magnetosphere in the Solar System

The Magnetospheres in the Solar System
Body Type Size (in radius of the body) Strength (compared to Earth's) Tilt (relative to body's axis tilt) Radiation Belts (y/n) Auroras

Mercury magneto. Mercury, with a substantial iron-rich core, has a magnetic field that is only about 1 percent as strong as Earth’s. It is thought that the planet’s magnetosphere is compressed by the intense solar wind, limiting its extent. Mercury magnetic field could have changed of alignment throughout time 1.5 1/3,000th no (?) no ?

Venus ionospheric ? 1/25,000th - - ?

Earth magneto. Earth’s magnetosphere is created by the constantly moving molten metal inside Earth. A 6 percent of Earth's magnetic field is partly due to electrical currents in space surrounding Earth and partly to magnetised rocks in the upper lithosphere –- the rigid outer part of Earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle -- That percentage is called the 'lithospheric magnetic field' and is very weak. A sharper and stronger anomaly is observed over the Central African Republic, maybe the result of a meteorite impact more than 540 million years ago. Magnetic poles' flips every few hundred thousand years are imprinted in the field under the form of stripes 10 - 11.2° yes yes (triggered by the interaction between solar events and the magnetosphere; the Earth is rotating under the auroral oval). Earth's northern and southern generally mirror each other because the magnetic fields are similar

Mars ionospheric, and magneto remnants sheltering a part of the ionosphere. The Mariner 4 mission discovered in 1964 a very weak radiation belt, about 0.1 percent that of the Earth's. The lack of a intrinsic Martian magnetic field with small regions of magnetized crust makes the Martian magnetosphere vary on short timescales and lumpy as a result ? 1/5,000th - - yes. Auroras at Mars occur under the magnetic field remnants of the Red Planet and also elsewhere as, generally, energetic particles are not guided and just follow the magnetic lines of the solar wind. Auroras can occur at less than 62 miles from the surface. Excited oxygen atoms in the Martian atmosphere would likely produce green light under the form of diffuse auroras. A aurora on Mars can envelope the entire planet because Mars has no strong magnetic field like Earth's to concentrate the aurora near polar regions. Mars' rare ultraviolet aurora are due to solar particles directly striking the planet’s atmosphere. Ultraviolet auroras turn out to be very rare and transient, lasting only a few seconds. The auroras appear only under special conditions, near the boundary between open and closed magnetic field lines as the field lines guiding the electrons may be tilted from the vertical. The incoming energetic electrons interact with the carbon dioxide molecules in the atmosphere, resulting in the ultraviolet emission. Ultraviolet auroras associated with known magnetic anomalies in Mars’ crust are confined, rare and transient events that vary in time and space. They are very different from the auroras seen on other planets. Diffuse and proton aurorae unrelated to either a global or local magnetic field exist at Mars. Proton auroras are caused by the solar wind's protons

Jupiter magneto (Jupiter's magnetic field is thought to be produced by metallic hydrogen in the deep interior under the form of a core of compressed liquid metallic hydrogen; Jupiter's magnetosphere is by far the strongest and biggest magnetic field in our solar system as it stretches about 12 million miles from East to West); the 'Van Allen' belts at Jupiter, or radiation belts, are intense due to Jupiter's very strong magnetosphere, the large extension of it and the volcanoes of Io constantly releasing gas into where there get ionized and energized. Jupiter's magnetic field is substantially different in the planet's northern and southern hemispheres. One explanation concerns Jupiter's core, the nature of which is still a mystery. Jupiter magnetosphere's 'secular variation' (usual magnetic field's variation) is most likely driven by the planet's deep atmospheric winds. Nowhere was Jupiter's secular variation as large as at the planet's Great Blue Spot, an intense patch of magnetic field near Jupiter's equator as it could be responsible for almost all of the variation. The Jovian magnetic field is changing, which makes it the first to be detected with that characteristic on a planet aside Earth 70 10,000 times about equal to Earth's yes yes (powerful -a hundred times more powerful than the most powerful Earth's lightning bolts; mostly due to Io's ions trapped and accelerated by Jupiter's strong magnetic fields unto the poles; occasionally due to interaction solar events-Jupiter's magnetosphere; the auroral oval is rotating with the planet. Solar storms are triggering X-ray auroras on Jupiter that are about eight times brighter than normal over a large area of the planet and hundreds of times more energetic than Earth’s northern lights. Jupiter's intense northern and southern lights, or auroras, behave independently of each other, each based however upon a X-ray hot spot at the pole -as such X-rays auroras are a singularity in the world of gas giants. The X-ray emission at the south pole consistently pulses every 11 minutes, but the north pole X-rays is erratic, increasing and decreasing in brightness. The process which generates Jupiter's auroras, generally, is ill-understood as such X-ray flashes might occur after the time it takes for a wave to travel along Jupiter magnetosphere once created by the solar wind interfering with the Jovian magnetic field. A question also is what accelerate Jupiter's oxygen atoms to the point they loose all their 8 electrons. Solar events compress Jupiter’s magnetosphere, shifting its boundary with the solar wind inward by more than a million miles. Jupiter has a additional source for its auroras, with the strong magnetic field of the gas giant grabbing charged particles from its surroundings, including not only the charged particles within the solar wind but also the particles thrown into space by moon Io through its numerous and large volcanoes. A solar storm reaches Jupiter in 15 days. Energetic particles that create Jovian auroras are likely related to the gas giant's radiation belts as Jupiter is able to accelerate charged particles to immense energies and brightest auroras are caused by some kind of still poorly understood turbulent acceleration process. Electric force however is observed only for some of the most intense auroras and not all)

Saturn magneto. Saturn's huge ring system transforms the shape of its magnetosphere, with oxygen and water molecules evaporating from the rings funnel particles into the space around. Some of Saturn’s moons help trap these particles, pulling them out of Saturn's magnetosphere, though those with active volcanic geysers — like Enceladus — spit out more material than they take in 21 540 times 0°. the fact that Saturn's magnetic field axis is completely aligned with its spin axis means, that, according to what scientists know about how planetary magnetic fields are generated, Saturn should not have one no yes (seem to be triggered by solar wind shock waves (pressure interaction) and electric fields; brightenings may last for days (10 mn at Earth only); the auroral oval may or may not rotate with the planet, it's shrinking (!) at periods of higher activity, and it may have its ends not connected. Auroras are brightest at the day-night boundary). Another kind of auroras has been spotted at the ringed planet by the Cassini mission, showing an aurora covering a wide area from 82 degrees North to the pole and constantly changing -and even disappearing during 45 minutes! Patterns of auroral emission are rapidly changing as one persistant bright patch is lockstepped with Saturn's moon Mimas and a intermittent one to Enceladus .It appears that when particles from the Sun hit Saturn, the magnetotail collapses and later reconfigures itself, an event that is reflected in the dynamics of its auroras. The variability of the Saturnian auroras is influenced by both the solar wind and the rapid rotation of Saturn, with two distinct peaks in brightness, at dawn and just before midnight (the latter one during solstice periods only)

Uranus magneto (underlying ocean?). Uranus' magnetosphere was discovered in 1986 by the Voyager 2. Uranus’ magnetic field and rotation axis are out of alignment by 59 degrees. Uranus magnetic field does not go directly through the center of the planet, so the strength of the magnetic field varies dramatically across the surface. That extremely asymmetrical magnetosphere leaves Sun radiation to hit parts of Uranus as is also helped that the planet lost between 15 to 55 percent of its atmospheric mass. Magnetosphere's misalignment also means that Uranus’ magnetotail, the part of the magnetosphere that trails behind the planet, away from the Sun, is twisted into a long corkscrew 27 40 times 58.6° (offset of the core by 30 percent of the radius). The magnetic field might be multipolar indeed. The axis is quickly and constantly spinning about the planet's axis. Uranus's magnetosphere mostly is entirely lying in the ecliptic plane. Hubble by the 2010's re-discovered Uranus’ long-lost magnetic poles, which were lost shortly after their discovery by Voyager 2 in 1986 due to uncertainties in measurements and the featureless planet surface. That tilted and off-center magnetic field might be explained by a impact 4 billion years ago which left molten ice and lopsided lumps of rock within the planet ? yes (polar auroras occur on Uranus as they had been observed since 1986 by the Voyager 2 probe. The auroras light up and out in matter of minutes on the daylight side of the planet as they are permanent on the night side. The auroral activity depends upon the varied possible relationships between Uranus's magnetosphere and the solar wind. A solar storm reaches Uranus in 2 months. Uranus auroras regions rotate with the planet)

Neptune magneto (underlying ocean?). The magnetosphere is offset from the rotation axis, but only by 47 degrees. The magnetic field might be multipolar indeed. Like at Uranus, Neptune’s magnetic field strength varies across the planet 26 40 times 50° (offset of the core by 25 percent of the radius). The axis is quickly and constantly spinning about the planet's axis ? yes. Due to the pecularity of Neptune's magnetosphere, auroras can appear across the planet and not just close to the poles

Pluto ? ? ? ? ? ?

Moon ancient magneto. The dynamo field of Moon persisted from at least 4.25 to 3.56 billion years ago as it was equivalent in intensity to that of Earth. The field then declined by at least an order of magnitude by 3.3 billion years ago as it had peaked between 3.9 billion and 3.6 billion years ago and then dropped -- which suggests that something must have changed in the lunar interior. Moon features bubbles of a magnetosphere - 1/100th - no ?

Ganymede (Jupiter's moon) magneto (molten core). Ganymede's magneto is caused by moon’s iron core as a subsurface saline ocean also influences the behavior of the moon’s aurorae. Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system with a magnetic field. Ganymede's magnetoshere is a weak field, nestled in Jupiter’s enormous shell ? ? ? ? Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and one of some moons with its own magnetic field, causing aurorae. As close to Jupiter, the moon is also embedded in the gas giant's magnetic field. With a saltwater ocean present at Ganymede, Jupiter’s magnetic field would create a secondary magnetic field in the ocean that would counter Jupiter’s field. Ganymede has auroras. However, unlike Earth, the particles causing Ganymede’s auroras come from the plasma surrounding Jupiter, not the solar wind. The fact that Ganymede's magnetosphere is inserted into Jupiter's larger one turns it with long horn-like shape that stretches ahead of the moon in the direction of its orbit. Plasma particles on the other hand, are accelerated by the Jovian magnetosphere, continually raining down on Ganymede’s poles, and yielding, among others, auroras. Strong flows of plasma are pushed between Jupiter and Ganymede due to a magnetic reconnection event occurring between the two magnetospheres, which also contribute to the unusually bright auroras

Callisto (Jupiter's moon) magneto (underlying ocean and Jupiter magnetosphere) ? ? ? ? ?

Europa (Jupiter's moon) magneto? (underlying ocean and Jupiter magnetosphere) ? ? ? ? yes (a aurora is powered at the moon's south pole by Jupiter’s intense magnetic field due to excited atomic oxygen and hydrogen)

Comets atmospheric - - ? - ?

The Magnetospheres in the Solar System
Body	Type	Size (in radius of the body)	Strength (compared to Earth's)	Tilt (relative to body's axis tilt)	Radiation Belts (y/n)	Auroras
Mercury	magneto. Mercury, with a substantial iron-rich core, has a magnetic field that is only about 1 percent as strong as Earth’s. It is thought that the planet’s magnetosphere is compressed by the intense solar wind, limiting its extent. Mercury magnetic field could have changed of alignment throughout time	1.5	1/3,000th	no (?)	no	?
Venus	ionospheric	?	1/25,000th	-	-	?
Earth	magneto. Earth’s magnetosphere is created by the constantly moving molten metal inside Earth. A 6 percent of Earth's magnetic field is partly due to electrical currents in space surrounding Earth and partly to magnetised rocks in the upper lithosphere –- the rigid outer part of Earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle -- That percentage is called the 'lithospheric magnetic field' and is very weak. A sharper and stronger anomaly is observed over the Central African Republic, maybe the result of a meteorite impact more than 540 million years ago. Magnetic poles' flips every few hundred thousand years are imprinted in the field under the form of stripes	10	-	11.2°	yes	yes (triggered by the interaction between solar events and the magnetosphere; the Earth is rotating under the auroral oval). Earth's northern and southern generally mirror each other because the magnetic fields are similar
Mars	ionospheric, and magneto remnants sheltering a part of the ionosphere. The Mariner 4 mission discovered in 1964 a very weak radiation belt, about 0.1 percent that of the Earth's. The lack of a intrinsic Martian magnetic field with small regions of magnetized crust makes the Martian magnetosphere vary on short timescales and lumpy as a result	?	1/5,000th	-	-	yes. Auroras at Mars occur under the magnetic field remnants of the Red Planet and also elsewhere as, generally, energetic particles are not guided and just follow the magnetic lines of the solar wind. Auroras can occur at less than 62 miles from the surface. Excited oxygen atoms in the Martian atmosphere would likely produce green light under the form of diffuse auroras. A aurora on Mars can envelope the entire planet because Mars has no strong magnetic field like Earth's to concentrate the aurora near polar regions. Mars' rare ultraviolet aurora are due to solar particles directly striking the planet’s atmosphere. Ultraviolet auroras turn out to be very rare and transient, lasting only a few seconds. The auroras appear only under special conditions, near the boundary between open and closed magnetic field lines as the field lines guiding the electrons may be tilted from the vertical. The incoming energetic electrons interact with the carbon dioxide molecules in the atmosphere, resulting in the ultraviolet emission. Ultraviolet auroras associated with known magnetic anomalies in Mars’ crust are confined, rare and transient events that vary in time and space. They are very different from the auroras seen on other planets. Diffuse and proton aurorae unrelated to either a global or local magnetic field exist at Mars. Proton auroras are caused by the solar wind's protons
Jupiter	magneto (Jupiter's magnetic field is thought to be produced by metallic hydrogen in the deep interior under the form of a core of compressed liquid metallic hydrogen; Jupiter's magnetosphere is by far the strongest and biggest magnetic field in our solar system as it stretches about 12 million miles from East to West); the 'Van Allen' belts at Jupiter, or radiation belts, are intense due to Jupiter's very strong magnetosphere, the large extension of it and the volcanoes of Io constantly releasing gas into where there get ionized and energized. Jupiter's magnetic field is substantially different in the planet's northern and southern hemispheres. One explanation concerns Jupiter's core, the nature of which is still a mystery. Jupiter magnetosphere's 'secular variation' (usual magnetic field's variation) is most likely driven by the planet's deep atmospheric winds. Nowhere was Jupiter's secular variation as large as at the planet's Great Blue Spot, an intense patch of magnetic field near Jupiter's equator as it could be responsible for almost all of the variation. The Jovian magnetic field is changing, which makes it the first to be detected with that characteristic on a planet aside Earth	70	10,000 times	about equal to Earth's	yes	yes (powerful -a hundred times more powerful than the most powerful Earth's lightning bolts; mostly due to Io's ions trapped and accelerated by Jupiter's strong magnetic fields unto the poles; occasionally due to interaction solar events-Jupiter's magnetosphere; the auroral oval is rotating with the planet. Solar storms are triggering X-ray auroras on Jupiter that are about eight times brighter than normal over a large area of the planet and hundreds of times more energetic than Earth’s northern lights. Jupiter's intense northern and southern lights, or auroras, behave independently of each other, each based however upon a X-ray hot spot at the pole -as such X-rays auroras are a singularity in the world of gas giants. The X-ray emission at the south pole consistently pulses every 11 minutes, but the north pole X-rays is erratic, increasing and decreasing in brightness. The process which generates Jupiter's auroras, generally, is ill-understood as such X-ray flashes might occur after the time it takes for a wave to travel along Jupiter magnetosphere once created by the solar wind interfering with the Jovian magnetic field. A question also is what accelerate Jupiter's oxygen atoms to the point they loose all their 8 electrons. Solar events compress Jupiter’s magnetosphere, shifting its boundary with the solar wind inward by more than a million miles. Jupiter has a additional source for its auroras, with the strong magnetic field of the gas giant grabbing charged particles from its surroundings, including not only the charged particles within the solar wind but also the particles thrown into space by moon Io through its numerous and large volcanoes. A solar storm reaches Jupiter in 15 days. Energetic particles that create Jovian auroras are likely related to the gas giant's radiation belts as Jupiter is able to accelerate charged particles to immense energies and brightest auroras are caused by some kind of still poorly understood turbulent acceleration process. Electric force however is observed only for some of the most intense auroras and not all)
Saturn	magneto. Saturn's huge ring system transforms the shape of its magnetosphere, with oxygen and water molecules evaporating from the rings funnel particles into the space around. Some of Saturn’s moons help trap these particles, pulling them out of Saturn's magnetosphere, though those with active volcanic geysers — like Enceladus — spit out more material than they take in	21	540 times	0°. the fact that Saturn's magnetic field axis is completely aligned with its spin axis means, that, according to what scientists know about how planetary magnetic fields are generated, Saturn should not have one	no	yes (seem to be triggered by solar wind shock waves (pressure interaction) and electric fields; brightenings may last for days (10 mn at Earth only); the auroral oval may or may not rotate with the planet, it's shrinking (!) at periods of higher activity, and it may have its ends not connected. Auroras are brightest at the day-night boundary). Another kind of auroras has been spotted at the ringed planet by the Cassini mission, showing an aurora covering a wide area from 82 degrees North to the pole and constantly changing -and even disappearing during 45 minutes! Patterns of auroral emission are rapidly changing as one persistant bright patch is lockstepped with Saturn's moon Mimas and a intermittent one to Enceladus .It appears that when particles from the Sun hit Saturn, the magnetotail collapses and later reconfigures itself, an event that is reflected in the dynamics of its auroras. The variability of the Saturnian auroras is influenced by both the solar wind and the rapid rotation of Saturn, with two distinct peaks in brightness, at dawn and just before midnight (the latter one during solstice periods only)
Uranus	magneto (underlying ocean?). Uranus' magnetosphere was discovered in 1986 by the Voyager 2. Uranus’ magnetic field and rotation axis are out of alignment by 59 degrees. Uranus magnetic field does not go directly through the center of the planet, so the strength of the magnetic field varies dramatically across the surface. That extremely asymmetrical magnetosphere leaves Sun radiation to hit parts of Uranus as is also helped that the planet lost between 15 to 55 percent of its atmospheric mass. Magnetosphere's misalignment also means that Uranus’ magnetotail, the part of the magnetosphere that trails behind the planet, away from the Sun, is twisted into a long corkscrew	27	40 times	58.6° (offset of the core by 30 percent of the radius). The magnetic field might be multipolar indeed. The axis is quickly and constantly spinning about the planet's axis. Uranus's magnetosphere mostly is entirely lying in the ecliptic plane. Hubble by the 2010's re-discovered Uranus’ long-lost magnetic poles, which were lost shortly after their discovery by Voyager 2 in 1986 due to uncertainties in measurements and the featureless planet surface. That tilted and off-center magnetic field might be explained by a impact 4 billion years ago which left molten ice and lopsided lumps of rock within the planet	?	yes (polar auroras occur on Uranus as they had been observed since 1986 by the Voyager 2 probe. The auroras light up and out in matter of minutes on the daylight side of the planet as they are permanent on the night side. The auroral activity depends upon the varied possible relationships between Uranus's magnetosphere and the solar wind. A solar storm reaches Uranus in 2 months. Uranus auroras regions rotate with the planet)
Neptune	magneto (underlying ocean?). The magnetosphere is offset from the rotation axis, but only by 47 degrees. The magnetic field might be multipolar indeed. Like at Uranus, Neptune’s magnetic field strength varies across the planet	26	40 times	50° (offset of the core by 25 percent of the radius). The axis is quickly and constantly spinning about the planet's axis	?	yes. Due to the pecularity of Neptune's magnetosphere, auroras can appear across the planet and not just close to the poles
Pluto	?	?	?	?	?	?
Moon	ancient magneto. The dynamo field of Moon persisted from at least 4.25 to 3.56 billion years ago as it was equivalent in intensity to that of Earth. The field then declined by at least an order of magnitude by 3.3 billion years ago as it had peaked between 3.9 billion and 3.6 billion years ago and then dropped -- which suggests that something must have changed in the lunar interior. Moon features bubbles of a magnetosphere	-	1/100th	-	no	?
Ganymede (Jupiter's moon)	magneto (molten core). Ganymede's magneto is caused by moon’s iron core as a subsurface saline ocean also influences the behavior of the moon’s aurorae. Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system with a magnetic field. Ganymede's magnetoshere is a weak field, nestled in Jupiter’s enormous shell	?	?	?	?	Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and one of some moons with its own magnetic field, causing aurorae. As close to Jupiter, the moon is also embedded in the gas giant's magnetic field. With a saltwater ocean present at Ganymede, Jupiter’s magnetic field would create a secondary magnetic field in the ocean that would counter Jupiter’s field. Ganymede has auroras. However, unlike Earth, the particles causing Ganymede’s auroras come from the plasma surrounding Jupiter, not the solar wind. The fact that Ganymede's magnetosphere is inserted into Jupiter's larger one turns it with long horn-like shape that stretches ahead of the moon in the direction of its orbit. Plasma particles on the other hand, are accelerated by the Jovian magnetosphere, continually raining down on Ganymede’s poles, and yielding, among others, auroras. Strong flows of plasma are pushed between Jupiter and Ganymede due to a magnetic reconnection event occurring between the two magnetospheres, which also contribute to the unusually bright auroras
Callisto (Jupiter's moon)	magneto (underlying ocean and Jupiter magnetosphere)	?	?	?	?	?
Europa (Jupiter's moon)	magneto? (underlying ocean and Jupiter magnetosphere)	?	?	?	?	yes (a aurora is powered at the moon's south pole by Jupiter’s intense magnetic field due to excited atomic oxygen and hydrogen)
Comets	atmospheric	-	-	?	-	?

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