Planetary Magnetic Fields: Mars

marsglobe3.jpg (294724 bytes)

24.6hr rotation fast enough for dynamo

Yet

  • Field 5,000 times weaker than Earth’s

Why?

  • The radius of Mars is only 53% that of the Earth.  This would allow Mars to cool mor rapidly, leaving it without a substantila fluid core.  Without a fluid core, the dynamo effect cannot work, and there is no large-scale magnetic field.

Additionally

  • Mars has a (thin) atmosphere, so like Venus, the solar wind interacts with ionosphere.  This llows for charged particles to exist around Mars, but there is no substantial magnetosphere.

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Slide 19