The Plasma Science experiment on Voyager 2 detected a magnetosphere filled with a tenuous plasma, rotating with the planet. Temperatures of the plasma, composed of protons and electrons, ranged from 10 eV to about 1 keV. The sources of these protons and electrons are probably the ionosphere of Uranus or the extended neutral hydrogen cloud surrounding the planet. As at earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, there is an extended magnetotail with a central plasma sheet. Although similar in global structure to the magnetospheres of these planets, the large angle between the rotation and magnetic axes of the planet and the orientation of the rotation axis with respect to the solar wind flow make the Uranian magnetosphere unique.
The low energy plasma in the Uranian magnetosphere
Advances in Space Research ; 7 , 12 1
1987-01-01
Miscellaneous
No indication
English
Phase space densities in the Uranian plasma sheet
NTRS | 1992
|Phase space densities in the Uranian plasma sheet
Elsevier | 1992
|Time variability of the Uranian atmosphere
NTRS | 2004
|The Uranian satellites: Water ice on Ariel and Umbriel
NTRS | 1981
|Feasibility of a Galileo-Style Tour of the Uranian Satellites
Online Contents | 2003
|