Magnetic Field and Structure
Venus's crust appears to be 50 kilometres (31 mi) in thickness, and composed of silicate rocks. Venus's mantle is approximately 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) thick, but its composition is unknown. Since Venus is a terrestrial planet, it is presumed to have a core made of semisolid iron and nickel with a radius of approximately 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi).
Pioneer Venus Orbiter data indicates that Venus does not have a significant magnetic field. The magnetic field of a planet is produced by a dynamo in its core. A dynamo requires a conducting liquid, rotation, and convection. Venus is thought to have an electrically conductive core, and although its rotation period is very long (243.7 Earth days), simulations show that this is adequate to produce a dynamo (Stevenson 2003). This implies that Venus lacks convection in its core. Convection occurs when there is a large difference in temperature between the inner and outer part of the core, but since Venus has no plate tectonics to let off heat, it is possible that it has no inner core, or that its core is not currently cooling.
Read more about this topic: Geology Of Venus
Famous quotes containing the words magnetic, field and/or structure:
“We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of today. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (18861965)