'These processes are a universal mechanism for aurora generation.'
, the smallest and least massive of the solar system's planets, also possesses a magnetosphere. However, its magnetosphere is typically only about 5% the size of Earth's. This is because the magnetic field of Mercury is less than 1% as strong as our planet's, Sae Aizawa, a planetary scientist and space plasma physicist at the Institute for Astrophysics and Planetology Research in Toulouse, France, told Space.com.
The magnetosphere of a planet often acts as a barrier to solar wind flow, in the same way as a boulder in a stream serves as an obstacle to flowing water. However, previous research found that, depending on how Earth and Mercury are oriented with respect to the interplanetary magnetic field fromOn Earth, the entry of the solar wind into the magnetosphere drives the motions of electrons and other electrically charged particles.
Previous research detected very high-energy electrons and X-rays from Mercury. However, those studies lacked the tools to monitor the relatively low-energy electrons that usually power auroras. Now Aizawa and her colleagues have discovered evidence that auroras on Mercury have the same origins as they do on Earth. The results suggest that"these processes are a universal mechanism for aurora generation," Aizawa said.
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