You are watching: Which of the terrestrial worlds has the strongest magnetic field?
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Which of the four terrestrial planets has the strongest magnetic area, Mars, Mercury, Venus, or Earth?
The Planet, by far.
The 4 large planets have actually fairly strong magnetic fields. Amongst the terrestrial planets, just the Earth has actually a moderately solid magnetic area, yet weaker than those of the large planets. Mercury, prefer the Earth, has actually a self-sustained dipole magnetic area, however a lot weaker than that of the Planet. The Moon, and perhaps Mars, show up to have actually had primitive planetary dynamos, yet not anyeven more. Finally, Venus additionally does not have a self-continual dipole magnetic area.
One prior explanation for why the Moon and Mars do not have self-sustained dipole magnetic areas has fallen by the wayside. It was lengthy posited that the cores of the Moon and Mars have actually long because frozen. This is not the situation. Analyses of the gravity areas of the Moon and Mars have displayed that those 2 objects have actually partly molten cores consisting of iron and various other aspects, just like the Planet.
It shows up that three key ingredients are essential for a terrestrial planet to have actually a significant magnetic field:
A molten or partly molten core consisting of iron, nickel, and also various other aspects. All 4 terrestrial planets and the Moon pass this criterion.A sufficiently high rotation rate. What that sufficiently high is topic to dispute. One rotation per sidegenuine day is obviously sufficiently high. Mars has actually a very similar rotation rate however does not have a self-sustained dynamo.A sufficiently high heat flux throughout the core-mantle boundary. This is the one factor that distinguishes the Earth from the other four terrestrial objects. Mercury, the Moon, and Mars have static lid tectonics: their surdeals with are frozen. Venus appears to have actually alternated between static lid tectonics (which is what it has now) and also too much volcanic tectonics (the most effective way to cool a planet).The Planet is the just among those 5 objects to have actually plate tectonics. While not as effective as extreme volcanism via regard to cooling a world, it supposedly is great enough to preserve the warmth flux across the core-mantle boundary that is necessary to preserve a self-sustaining dynamo.