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A rendering of the magnetic field lines of the magnetosphere of the Earth. In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. [1] [2] It is created by a celestial body with an active interior dynamo.
Terrestrial planets are substantially different from the giant planets, which might not have solid surfaces and are composed mostly of some combination of hydrogen, helium, and water existing in various physical states. Terrestrial planets have a compact, rocky surfaces, and Venus, Earth, and Mars each also has an atmosphere. Their size, radius ...
Today, Mars does not have a global magnetic field. However, Mars did power an early dynamo that produced a strong magnetic field 4 billion years ago, comparable to Earth's present surface field. After the early dynamo ceased, a weak late dynamo was reactivated (or persisted up to) ~3.8 billion years ago.
It is the moon with the highest volcanic activity in the Solar System, as a result of the tidal forces from the planet and its oval orbit around it. Even so, the surface is still cold: -143 Cº. The atmosphere is 200 times lighter than Earth's atmosphere, the proximity of Jupiter gives a lot of radiation, and it is completely devoid of water.
The composition of Earth's atmosphere is different from the other planets because the various life processes that have transpired on the planet have introduced free molecular oxygen. [122]
For the Earth, this could have been an external magnetic field. Early in its history the Sun went through a T-Tauri phase in which the solar wind would have had a magnetic field orders of magnitude larger than the present solar wind. [60] However, much of the field may have been screened out by the Earth's mantle.
Earth serves as a counterexample to Venus and Mars, which have no planetary magnetospheres, and to Mercury, with a magnetosphere but negligible atmosphere. Jupiter's moon Io creates sulfur emissions, and a feature of sulfur and some sodium around that planet. Similarly, Earth's Moon has trace sodium emissions, and a far weaker tail.
The magnetic field is about 1.1% as strong as Earth's. [10] At the Hermean equator, the relative strength of the magnetic field is around 300 nT, which is weaker than that of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. [13] Mercury's magnetic field is weaker than Earth's because its core had cooled and solidified more quickly than Earth's. [14]