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Earth's magnetic field deflects most of the solar wind, whose charged particles would otherwise strip away the ozone layer that protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. [4] One stripping mechanism is for gas to be caught in bubbles of the magnetic field, which are ripped off by solar winds. [5]
The average distance between Neptune and the Sun is 4.5 billion km (about 30.1 astronomical units (AU), the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun), and it completes an orbit on average every 164.79 years, subject to a variability of around ±0.1 years. The perihelion distance is 29.81 AU, and the aphelion distance is 30.33 AU.
The surface of Venus is comparatively very flat. When 93% of the topography was mapped by Pioneer Venus, [15] scientists found that the total distance from the lowest point to the highest point on the entire surface was about 13 kilometres (8 mi), while on the Earth the distance from the basins to the Himalayas is about
On the dayside of Earth, the magnetic field is significantly compressed by the solar wind to a distance of approximately 65,000 kilometers (40,000 mi). Earth's bow shock is about 17 kilometers (11 mi) thick [ 12 ] and located about 90,000 kilometers (56,000 mi) from Earth. [ 13 ]
The magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune are strongly tilted relative to the planets' rotational axes and displaced from the planets' centres. [ 137 ] In 2003, a team of astronomers in Hawaii observing the star HD 179949 detected a bright spot on its surface, apparently created by the magnetosphere of an orbiting hot Jupiter.
The presence or absence of a magnetic field affects an upper atmosphere, and in turn the overall atmosphere. Impacts of solar wind particles create chemical reactions and ionic species, which may in turn affect magnetospheric phenomena. Earth serves as a counterexample to Venus and Mars, which have no planetary magnetospheres, and to Mercury ...
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Venus is similar to Earth in size and density, and so probably also in bulk composition, but it does not have a significant magnetic field. [7]: 1729–1730 Earth's magnetic field is produced by what is known as the core dynamo, consisting of an electrically conducting liquid, the nickel-iron outer core that rotates and is convecting.