![]() "These findings may have implications for tidal interactions in other two-body celestial systems," they wrote. The researchers also want to see if plasma in the magnetospheres of other planets is influenced by those planets' moons. Better understanding the tides could therefore help to improve work in these areas, they added. "We suspect that the observed plasma tide may subtly affect the distribution of energetic radiation belt particles, which are a well-known hazard to space-based infrastructure and human activities in space," the researchers wrote. He team thinks this previously unknown interaction between Earth and the moon could help researchers understand other parts of the magnetosphere in greater detail, such as the Van Allen radiation belts, which capture highly energetic particles from solar wind and trap them in the outer magnetosphere. First, some background: High tides on this planet are caused mostly by the pull of the moon’s gravity on a spinning Earth. Ferris-wheel-size chunk of the moon is orbiting suspiciously close to Earth Brand-new mini 'moon' found lurking in the outer solar system ![]() Solar tides are about half as large as lunar tides. Mars may be slowly ripping its largest moon apart The moon is a major influence on the Earths tides, but the sun also generates considerable tidal forces. Related: How did the moon form? A supercomputer may have the answer The satellites' sensors are capable of detecting minute changes in the concentrations of plasma, which allowed the team to map out the exact boundary of the plasmapause in greater detail than ever before. To investigate this question, the researchers analyzed data from more than 50,000 crossings of the plasmasphere by satellites belonging to 10 scientific missions, including NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission. However, until now, nobody had tested to see if there was a tidal effect on the plasmasphere. The moon is already known to exert tidal forces on Earth's oceans, crust, near-ground geomagnetic field and the gas within the lower atmosphere. Related: Colossal asteroid impact forever changed the balance of the moon Thus, its tide-generating force is reduced by 390 3, or about 59 million times less than the moon. However, the sun is 390 times further from the Earth than is the moon. The moon's gravitational pull can distort this "ocean," causing its surface to rise and fall like the ocean tides. If tidal forces were based solely on comparative masses, the sun should have a tide-generating force that is 27 million times greater than that of the moon. "Given its cold, dense plasma properties, the plasmasphere can be regarded as a 'plasma ocean,' and the plasmapause represents the 'surface' of this ocean," the researchers wrote in the paper. ![]() The boundary between this dense sunken plasma and the rest of the magnetosphere is known as the plasmapause. The plasma, or ionized gas, in the plasmasphere is denser than the plasma in the outer regions of the magnetosphere, which causes it to sink to the bottom of the magnetosphere. The plasmasphere is a roughly doughnut-shaped blob of cool plasma that sits on top of Earth's magnetic field lines, just above the ionosphere, the electrically charged part of the upper atmosphere. 26 in the journal Nature Physics, scientists used more than 40 years of data collected by satellites to track the minute changes in the shape of the plasmasphere, the inner region of Earth's magnetosphere, which shields our planet from solar storms and other types of high-energy particles. The moon exerts a previously unknown tidal force on the "plasma ocean" surrounding Earth's upper atmosphere, creating fluctuations that are similar to the tides in the oceans, a new study suggests. This is a side-by-side comparison of the Bay of Fundy in Canada at high and low tides.An image of the Earth and moon comparing ocean tides (shown as a small blue ring) to plasmasphere tides (shown as a large orange ring)
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