Still seeking a Martian magnetic field.Still seeking a Martian magnetic field Scientists have long tried to determine whether Mars has its own internal magnetic field or if the solar wind's magnetic field lines simply wrap around the planet. Now, using data from the Soviet Union's Phobos 2 spacecraft, a group of researchers that includes Janet G. Luhmann and Christopher T. Russell Christopher Thomas Russell is the head of the Space Physics Group in IGPP and the Director of the UCLA Branch of the California Space Grant Consortium. He led the Dawn Mission team. of the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. , has observed that the magnetic "tail" streaming out from Mars looks as it should if it were due to the solar wind solar wind, stream of ionized hydrogen—protons and electrons—with an 8% component of helium ions and trace amounts of heavier ions that radiates outward from the sun at high speeds. . An internal field would be produced by a dynamo effect produced within Mars' core. "Unless there's an exotic dynamo the likes of which we've never seen before, Mars has none at all," says Russell. The group plans to report its finding May 30 at the American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (or AGU) is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 140 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and meeting in Baltimore. |
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