Other
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..gp22a01r&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #GP22A-01 INVITED
Other
5440 Magnetic Fields And Magnetism, 6205 Asteroids And Meteoroids, 6220 Jupiter, 6235 Mercury, 6250 Moon (1221)
Scientific paper
Magnetometer-carrying spacecraft have flown close enough to all the planets, save Pluto, to be able to detect the presence or absence of an intrinsic magnetic field. Of these only Venus and Mars have no presently detectable global magnetic field. Mars does have a strong remanent field composed of localized magnetic anomalies suggesting an ancient global field. The Earth's moon and Jupiter's Galilean moons have also been probed closely enough to detect any global intrinsic field and one, Ganymede, has a dipolar field and one, the Earth's moon, has localized remanence. We interpret all global intrinsic fields as indicative of a presently active dynamo and remanent fields as evidence for ancient dynamos, although we are aware that such views are not universally held. No missions have yet been flown to the large main belt asteroids such as Ceres and Vesta. Ceres is a low-density asteroid that may have accreted wet and did not differentiate to form a metallic core in contrast. Vesta shows evidence of differentiation, and has a density slightly larger than that of Mars. Meteorite evidence suggests Vesta has an iron core. Thus we would expect to see remanent magnetic fields at Vesta. To fully characterize a planetary magnetic field requires an orbiter, preferably a low-altitude polar orbiter. Of the planets with intrinsic magnetic fields only Earth and Jupiter have been orbited to date. Thus, while we know some details of the multipole structure of the other planetary magnetic fields, much uncertainty remains. Most importantly we have an accurate determination of the secular variation only of the terrestrial field. Nevertheless, there is some evidence for a Jovian secular variation.
Galland Kivelson Margaret
Russell Christopher T.
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