Recent advances in planetary magnetism

Abstract

During the past decade, significant advances in the in situ measurements of planetary magnetic fields have been made. The U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. have conducted spacecraft investigations of all the planets, from innermost Mercury out to Jupiter. Unexpectedly, Mercury was found to possess a global magnetic field but neither the Moon nor Venus do. The results at Mars are incomplete but if a global field exists, it is clearly quite weak. The main magnetic field of Jupiter has been measured directly for the first time and confirms, as well as augments appreciably, the past 2 decades of ground-based radio astronomical studies which provided indirect evidence of the field. Progress in developing analytically complete models of the dynamo process suggests a possible common origin for Mercury, earth and Jupiter.