Mercury Experiences Geomagnetic Storms Comparable to Those Seen on Earth

Mercury, the solar system's smallest planet, gets geomagnetic storms identical to those on Earth, according to a team of scientists.

Hui Zhang, a professor of space physics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, helped scientists from the United States, Canada, and China with their studies.

Geomagnetic storms appeared

(Photo : Johannes Plenio/Pexels)

Their groundbreaking discovery answered the question of whether other planets, including those beyond our solar system, also suffer from geomagnetic storms regardless of the integrity of their magnetosphere or the presence of an ionosphere similar to Earth's.

Each work has Zhang as one of the co-authors, as per ScienceDaily.

All of these publications proved the presence of a ring current around the earth, which is a doughnut-shaped field of electric charges that travels longitudinally around the globe but it does not reach the poles.

The second proved the presence of geomagnetic storms caused by ring currents.

On February 18th, the finding on geomagnetic storms was published in the journal Science China Technological Sciences.

QiuGang Zong of Peking University's Institute of Space Physics and Applied Technology and China's Polar Research Institute is the author of the paper.

That report was based on a finding issued the day before, which supported previous statements that Mercury has a ring current based on data observation and that there is a ring current on Earth as well.

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Coronal Mass Ejection

A geomagnetic storm is a major disruption in the magnetosphere of a planet caused by the transmission of solar wind energy.

Storms in the Earth's magnetosphere can cause auroras, which can disrupt radio communications.

A serendipitous coincidence allowed researchers to confirm the existence of geomagnetic storms on Mercury.

On April 8 to 18, 2015, the sun released a series of coronal mass ejections, signaling the end of NASA's Messenger space probe, which was founded in 2004 and plummeted as predicted, on the planet's surface on April 30, 2015, as per The Print.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a cloud of charged particles ejected from the corona of the sun.

This cloud also includes the plasma's embedded magnetic field.

The coronal mass ejection on April 14 was critical for scientists. By constricting Mercury's ring current on the sun-facing side, it increased its energy.

The presence of a ring current strengthening is needed for producing magnetic storms, according to a new examination of data from closer to the planet.

The major phase of a magnetic storm is caused by the abrupt intensification of a ring current, according to Zhang.

This does not, however, suggest that Mercury has auroral displays identical to those observed on Earth.

When solar wind particles meet with atmospheric particles during storms on Earth, aurora displays occur. In contrast, solar wind particles do not collide with Mercury's atmosphere.

Instead, they reach the surface unimpeded, making X-ray and gamma-ray imaging the sole way to view them.

According to the research, the findings of the two publications implied that magnetic storms might be a typical characteristic of magnetized planets.

Following the finding of Mercury's intrinsic planetary magnetic field, the results collected from Messenger give even another unique insight into Mercury's position in the evolution of the solar system, according to the research.