This is an image of the Earth's magnetosphere.
Click on image for full size
Original artwork by the Windows to the Universe team.

Magnetosphere

A magnetosphere has many parts, such as the bow shock, magnetosheath, magnetotail, plasmasheet, lobes, plasmasphere, radiation belts and many electric currents. It is composed of charged particles and magnetic flux.

These particles are responsible for many wonderful natural phenomena such as the aurora and natural radio emissions such as lion roars and whistler waves. Other phenomena include the donut shaped torus which circulates with moons which are inside the magnetosphere. The moons have wakes and wings associated with them while inside the magnetosphere.

The particles move and circulate about the magnetosphere and even generate storms. The magnetosphere changes constantly, even flipping its orientation every few thousand years.

Last modified December 3, 2008 by Randy Russell.

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