This is a drawing of the magnetosphere of Uranus.
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An Overview of Uranus' Magnetosphere

The magnetosphere of Uranus is medium sized, but still much larger than the Earth's. It extends well beyond the orbits of Uranus' moons. It is probably generated in the icy interior layers, rather than with a metallic component at the core.

The magnetosphere of Uranus has a very strange orientation, tilted by almost 60 degrees from the vertical. The extreme tilt, combined with the extreme tilt of the rotation axis of Uranus, provides for a completely unique magnetosphere, one which has a twisting structure!

Mathematical theory suggests that the rings of Uranus affect the both the motion of particles in the magnetosphere, as well as creating a strange, tiny plasmasphere instead of one large version.

The Auroraon Uranus is difficult to detect, and so are radio emissions from Uranus, which means that the magnetosphere of Uranus may be almost empty, swept clean by the rings of Uranus!


Last modified May 7, 2009 by Randy Russell.

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