Mercury faces huge magnetic storms

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134989§ionid=3510208


The analysis of MESSENGER spacecraft's data reveals huge intense magnetic storms in the magnetic tail of the closest planet to the sun, the journal Science reported.

According to the journal Science, the storms occur in the planet's 'magnetic tail, part of the planet's magnetic field.

The tails are formed from solar winds made up of 'charged particles' coming from the sun. They are formed in a manner similar to water hitting a rock and reforming behind it.

Magnetic fields are common in all planets in our solar system except for Mars and Venus. However, Mercury's is the weakest and smallest magnetic field.

The MESSENGER collected the data as it flew over Mercury as the tiny planet gathered huge amounts of energy from the coming solar winds.

The planet then increased the power of its magnetic field by 2 folds in 90 seconds before suddenly returning back to normal, releasing all that energy in another 90 seconds.

This is unusual as on earth a similar situation takes an hour increasing the field's energy by just 10%.

"This is all very curious…We have very weak solar wind conditions, yet we're seeing more tail loading than what we see on Earth. What's going to happen when the [solar] wind conditions pick up?" said lead author of the report Jim Slavin, who is a solar physicist at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center.

The best chance to answer this question will come up when the MESSENGER settles into Mercury's orbit in 2011 when the solar system may experience a peak in the sun's activities in 2012-2013.