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Despite its name, the magnetosphere is asymmetric, with the sunward side being about 10 Earth radii out but with the other side stretching out in a magnetotail that extends beyond 200 Earth radii. [28] Sunward of the magnetopause is the bow shock, the area where the solar wind slows abruptly. [27]
The magnetosphere of Jupiter is the largest planetary magnetosphere in the Solar System, extending up to 7,000,000 kilometers (4,300,000 mi) on the dayside and almost to the orbit of Saturn on the nightside. [17] Jupiter's magnetosphere is stronger than Earth's by an order of magnitude, and its magnetic moment is approximately 18,000 times ...
Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere. The solar wind flows from left to right. If a planet's magnetic field is strong enough, its interaction with the solar wind forms a magnetosphere. Early space probes mapped out the gross dimensions of the Earth's magnetic field, which extends about 10 Earth radii towards the Sun.
Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere, showing the relative position of the magnetosheath. Scientific research into the exact nature of the magnetosheath has been limited due to a longstanding misconception that it was a byproduct of the bow shock/magnetopause interaction and had no inherently important properties of its own.
Artistic representation of Earth's magnetosphere. The plasma sheet is highlighted in yellow. In the magnetosphere, the plasma sheet is a sheet-like region of denser (0.3-0.5 ions/cm 3 versus 0.01-0.02 in the lobes) [citation needed] hot plasma and lower magnetic field located on the magnetotail and near the equatorial plane, between the magnetosphere's north and south lobes.
This makes Earth's surface warm enough for liquid water and life. In addition to trapping heat, the atmosphere also protects living organisms by shielding the Earth's surface from cosmic rays. [17] The magnetic field—created by the internal motions of the core—produces the magnetosphere which protects Earth's atmosphere from the solar wind ...
The magnetic field of a magnetic dipole has an inverse cubic dependence in distance, so its order of magnitude at the earth surface can be approximated by multiplying the above result with (R outer core ⁄ R Earth) 3 = (2890 ⁄ 6370) 3 = 0.093 , giving 2.5×10 −5 Tesla, not far from the measured value of 3×10 −5 Tesla at the equator.
Areas researched within space physics encompass a large number of topics, ranging from the ionosphere to auroras, Earth's magnetosphere, the Solar wind, and coronal mass ejections. MHD forms the framework for understanding how populations of plasma interact within the local geospace environment.