Do other planets have magnetic fields?
Many do to an extant. Mercury's is very weak. Venus' is nearly non existant. Mars has a weak field that is strongest in her south pole, possibly residual from an impact. Jupiter's is immense, and Saturn's is no slouch. Uranus is 40 times stronger than Earth's and Neptune's is 1/4th as strong as our. I haven't been able to find up-to-date info on Pluto. I believe New Horizon's recent fly-by took readings but has not been reported.Terrestrial planets typically rely on at least a liquid core rotating within the planet for a strong magnetic field. That's why Venus' field is virtually gone: she rotates remarkably slowly and the core, in whichever state, appears not to be rotating any faster. Jovian planets tend to be much more massive and have layers of metallic hydrogen so even gas becomes an electromagnet. That is the case for the two largest in our system. Uranus and Neptune are significantly smaller but probably have moderately large solid iron cores (I'm not positive iron is the primary cause for Uranus' field).We can expect that exoplanets would behave similarly: magnetic fields for terrestrial planets with active cores and gaseous planets with sufficient metallicity or iron core motion.
What does a magnetic field do?
In my previous answer, I explained that magnetic fields are generated by electrically charged particles, and that electricity and magnetism are linked. As a result, a magnetic field also affects charged particles, and moving particles are deflected from their course and channeled along the magnetic field lines. This is why auroras are usually seen around the earth's magnetic poles: The charged particles from the sun are forced to follow the earth's magnetic field lines, which reach the surface at the magnetic poles. As they enter the atmosphere, they collide with gas molecules, and the rain of charged particles becomes visible as a glowing aurora. Note that even with a magnetic field, the earth's atmosphere is being eroded by charged particles from the sun at high latitudes. The magnetic field slows the loss of light gases, but gravity is more important for a planet to have an atmosphere; Venus has almost no magnetic field and an atmosphere almost 100 times denser than the earth's.
Can tidally locked planets have magnetic fields if they do not rotate?
Magnetic field are created by the amount of iron the plamets have inside them. Less iron less magnetic field..what produces gravity? Gravity is created by earth's mass , and not by it spinning. Mass means it's weight
What planets do not have significant magnetic fields?
In general, a planetary magnetic field is caused by a rotating, convecting, conductive liquid (such as molten iron). Planets with liquid, conductive cores generally have magnetic fields. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyn... Mercury's field is 1% Earth's: It is such a small planet that any molten iron at its core should have solidified by now (like Mars). Perhaps tidal forces are keeping its interior hot. Venus has no magnetic field, though the reason is not fully known. Perhaps its core has solidified? Or perhaps it lacks some other property. Mars has no global magnetic field, but does have some local fields: It is believed that Mars once had a magnetic field, but now its core has solidified. Jupiter's magnetic field is actually caused by a core of liquid hydrogen (which is a conductor). Saturn is similar to Jupiter. Uranus, smaller than both Jupiter and Saturn, has a weaker and somewhat asymmetric magnetic field. Its field may possibly be caused by convecting water. Neptune is similar to Uranus. No one yet knows whether Pluto has a magnetic field. In 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft will fly by Pluto and find out.
I read that Mars does not have a magnetic field like Earth does. Would that be because of differences in the makeup of each planet’s inner core?
Mars has a residual magnetic field, which is not strong enough to protect what little atmosphere remains.At one time Mars had a liquid outer core, hence a magnetic shield. The molten interior created the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons.It seems likely that Mars’ smaller size could not maintain a liquid core. When it partially or completely solidified the atmosphere was stripped away and the surface water evaporated.Did solar winds cause watery Mars to dry up? - FuturityEarth’s geodynamo almost failed before the Cambrian period some 565 million years ago. A recent paper recounts that the core began to solidify but the recompressed inner core fired up hotter than before creating new convection currents internally and now the magnetic field is 10 times stronger than it was during the Ediacaran Period.Without Earth’s magnetosphere life would never have evolved on Earth and our planet would have more in common with Mars.
How do tidally locked planets have their own magnetic field?
Do tidally locked planets (SG addition: and Exoplanets) have magnetic fields?The research combined models of orbital interactions and heating by Rory Barnes, assistant professor of astronomy, with those of thermal evolution of planetary interiors done by Driscoll, who began this work as a UW postdoctoral fellow and is now a geophysicist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.Barnes said there has been a general feeling in the astronomical community that tidally locked planets are unlikely to have protective magnetic fields “and therefore are completely at the mercy of their star.”Sourcehttps://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news...
Why doesn't Mars have a magnetic field in spite of having a core?
Mars does have a very weak magnetic field. There are a number of reasons for this, so far as we can tell. Some of what we "know" is not directly observable, but hypothesized from observable data coupled with what we understand to be true.Mars probably has a core composed of iron, nickel, and sulfur. Unlike the core of the Earth, which is partially molten, the core of Mars is thought to be solid. A magnetic field is the force that a magnetic object creates in the region around it. Motion within the Earth's molten core, for example, produces a wide magnetic field. The motion of the core occurs due to the mass of the core coupled with the rotation of the planet. The mechanism that produces the magnetic field can be thought of as a planetary dynamo.Data from Mars Global Surveyor show that some of the oldest rocks of Mars formed in the presence of a strong magnetic field. This seems to indicate that in the recent past, Mars had a molten core similar to our own.When we compare the magnetic fields of Earth and Mars, we can see that the Earth has a magnetic field that is 43 times stronger. Earth's magnetic field is supported by an internal dynamo. Any rocks that formed on Mars will have been magnetized. It's interesting, also, that Mars' southern hemisphere has a stronger field than its northern-most climes. Work published in Nature suggests that a gigantic, oblique impact blasted away a massive chunk of the crust of the northern hemisphere. This would have delivered enough energy to melt the whole of Mars' crust. The only theory I've read thus far, as to why the northern hemisphere didn't remain as strongly magnetic as the southern hemisphere, is the idea that the mineral composition changed greatly, perhaps from the impact or perhaps due to the presence of liquid water.
What happened to mars magnetic field?
In order for a planet to have a magnetic field, it needs to have a dynamo operating in it's core or mantle. There are 2 prerequisites for said dynamo: rotation and a conductive fluid. In the Earth, the outer core region is fluid nickel iron (among other things) which is highly ferromagnetic (it can sustain a magnetic field). As the planet rotates, the fluid outer core rotates with it, magnetic charges are created in the fluid and a geomagnetic field is created. Since Mars rotates at about the same rate as Earth, it is believed that it is missing the fluid outer core. If the core of Mars cooled and solidified there is nothing left to create the dynamo, hence no areomagnetic field. Of course, since we've never been to either core to take measurements, this is all just the leading theory.