Solar System Magnetopauses
Planet | Number | Magnetic moment | Magnetopause distance | Observed size of the magnetosphere | variance of magnetosphere |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mercury | 1 | 0.0004 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 0 |
Venus | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Earth | 3 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 2 |
Mars | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Jupiter | 5 | 20000 | 42 | 75 | 25 |
Saturn | 6 | 600 | 19 | 19 | 3 |
Uranus | 7 | 50 | 25 | 18 | 0 |
Neptune | 8 | 25 | 24 | 24.5 | 1.5 |
Research on the magnetopause is conducted using the LMN coordinate system (which is set of axes like XYZ). N points normal to the magnetopause outward to the magnetosheath, L lies along the projection of the dipole axis onto the magnetopause (positive northward), and M completes the triad by pointing dawnward.
Venus and Mars do not have a planetary magnetic field and do not have a magnetopause. The solar wind interacts with the planet’s atmosphere and a void is created behind the planet. In the case of the Earth’s moon and other bodies without a magnetic field or atmosphere, the body’s surface interacts with the solar wind and a void is created behind the body.
Read more about this topic: Magnetopause
Famous quotes containing the words solar system, solar and/or system:
“The solar system has no anxiety about its reputation, and the credit of truth and honesty is as safe; nor have I any fear that a skeptical bias can be given by leaning hard on the sides of fate, of practical power, or of trade, which the doctrine of Faith cannot down-weigh.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Lincoln becomes the American solar myth, the chief butt of American credulity and sentimentality.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“UG [universal grammar] may be regarded as a characterization of the genetically determined language faculty. One may think of this faculty as a language acquisition device, an innate component of the human mind that yields a particular language through interaction with present experience, a device that converts experience into a system of knowledge attained: knowledge of one or another language.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)