Torus

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines,
the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere)
Click on image for full size version (55K GIF)
Image courtesy of JPL

A satellite which has an atmosphere, such as Jupiter's moon Io, will leave a cloud of particles behind as it orbits the planet. Rhea, a body with an icy surface exposed to energetic particles, will have a similar cloud, assuming it also has a magnetosphere. This cloud of particles is called a torus.

The torus is shown in yellow in this figure.

Eventually all the particles in the cloud will be turned to ions. The presence of ions cause a number of noticable effects in a magnetosphere:

slows down the magnetic field as it goes around the moon
may drive Field-Aligned currents
may cause an aurora

Return to "What is a Magnetosphere?"

Torus

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines,
the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere)
Click on image for full size version (55K GIF)
Image courtesy of JPL

A satellite which has an atmosphere, such as Jupiter's moon Io, or even one with an icy surface which is exposed to energetic particles, such as Saturn's moon Rhea, will leave a cloud of particles behind as it orbits the planet. This cloud of particles is called a torus.

The torus is shown in yellow in this picture.

Eventually all the particles in the cloud will be turned to ions. The presence of ions cause a number of noticable effects in a magnetosphere:

slows down the magnetic field as it goes around the moon
may drive Field-Aligned currents
may cause an aurora

Return to "What is a Magnetosphere?"

Torus

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines,
the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere)
Click on image for full size version (55K GIF)
Image courtesy of JPL

A satellite which has an atmosphere, such as Jupiter's moon Io will leave a cloud of particles behind as it orbits the planet. This cloud of particles is called a torus.

The torus is shown in yellow in this picture.

Return to "What is a Magnetosphere?"

Last modified November 19, 1996 by the Windows Team

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Torus

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines, the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere) Click on image for full size version (55K GIF) Image courtesy of JPL

Torus

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines, the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere) Click on image for full size version (55K GIF) Image courtesy of JPL

Torus

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines, the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere) Click on image for full size version (55K GIF) Image courtesy of JPL

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines,
the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere)
Click on image for full size version (55K GIF)
Image courtesy of JPL

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines,
the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere)
Click on image for full size version (55K GIF)
Image courtesy of JPL

This is a drawing of Juptier and it's magnetosphere showing the magnetic field lines,
the Io torus, and the plasmasheet (part of the plasmasphere)
Click on image for full size version (55K GIF)
Image courtesy of JPL