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This schematic shows the space environment near Jupiter. The red band consists of magnetically trapped radiation ions, and the green and blue bands are the neutral gas toruses of Io and Europa, respectively.
Jupiter has a very large and powerful magnetosphere. In fact, if one could see Jupiter's magnetic field from Earth, it would appear five times as large as the full moon in the sky despite being so much farther away. The magnetic field is generated by eddy currents in Jupiter's metallic hydrogen core. This magnetic field collects a large flux of particle radiation in Jupiter's radiation belts, as well as producing a dramatic gas torus and flux tube associated with Io (one of Jupiter's moons). Jupiter's magnetosphere is the largest planetary structure in the solar system. [1]
[edit] Pioneer visit
The Pioneer probes confirmed that Jupiter's enormous magnetic field is 10 times stronger than Earth's and contains 20,000 times as much energy. The sensitive instruments aboard found that the Jovian magnetic field's "north" magnetic pole is at the planet’s geographic south pole, with the axis of the magnetic field tilted 11 degrees from the Jovian rotation axis and offset from the center of Jupiter in a manner similar to the axis of the Earth's field. The Pioneers measured the bow shock of the Jovian magnetosphere to the width of 26 million kilometers (16 million miles), with the magnetic tail extending beyond Saturn’s orbit.
Jupiter's magnetic field is oddly shaped. The data showed that the magnetic field fluctuates rapidly in size on the sunward side of Jupiter because of pressure variations in the solar wind, an effect studied in further detail by the two Voyager spacecraft. It was also discovered that streams of high-energy atomic particles are ejected from the Jovian magnetosphere and travel as far as the orbit of the Earth. Energetic protons were found and measured in the Jovian radiation belt and electric currents were detected flowing between Jupiter and some of its moons, particularly Io.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Jupiter's Magnetosphere" The Astrophysics Spectator, Iss. 1.8, 24 November 2004. URL accessed 15 April 2006.
