It is known that the diameter of Jupiter is 11 times Earth’s diameter, and a magnetic field stronger than the earth 20,000 times. Device “Juno”, released in orbit of the gas giant in 2016, unveiled his new features.
Scientists from the U.S. and Denmark have created a three-dimensional map of Jupiter’s magnetic field. For this purpose we used the data of the spacecraft “Juno” collected when making eight revolutions around the gas giant. It turned out that Jupiter’s magnetic field is maximally different from the fields of other planets of the solar system.
For comparison, the Earth’s magnetic field dipolar, i.e. the flows occur at the South pole and back to North. There are also non-dipole part, which is evenly distributed on the two hemispheres.
On Jupiter, the magnetic fluxes start to the Northern hemisphere and returning to the Great blue spot, located near the equator. Since the poles are not on opposite sides, the flow form is unnatural for the other planets form. Because of this, one side of the planet has a stronger field than the other.
Scientists believe that the unusual form is associated with the processes occurring in the depths of the planet. The magnetic field generated by the Dynamo effect, when the internal conductive liquid to move due to the rotation of the planet. Jupiter effect does not work in the same layer as that of the Earth, and several. This is due to the fact that the core of the planet consists of two parts: the upper consisting of pure hydrogen, and lower dissolved from rocks and ice chunks.
In order to examine in more detail what is happening on Jupiter processes, scientists need to obtain from the “Juno” more data. Its mission is to study atmosphere, magnetic field and magnetosphere will last until 2021.
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Jupiter’s magnetic field was more complicated than anticipated
Ramis Ganiev