This graphic, submitted by Paul Nylander, makes use of a third party application called TrueSpace 4.3. The magnetic field was calculated using Mathematica, while the coloring was acheived with Adobe Photoshop. The final rendering and solenoid creation were done in TrueSpace. Magnetic field By understanding the relationship between Mercury's magnetic field and the activity of the sun, we will be able to learn much about the magnetic field of our own planet and how it reacts with our star. The Earth's magnetic field is constantly being altered by events such as solar wind and solar flares, but we currently know little about why this is or how it occurs. haracterization of its nature. Mercury's field is thought to be a miniature version of the Earth's, but we do not actually know how strong it is. We do know, however, that Mercury's field is a dipole field like the Earth's. We do not know if Mercury's field comes from many smaller local fields (such as those that can be found centered on different lunar and Martian rock deposits) or a larger source.

Above is an image of the solar wind. (Assuming you're logged in to club.ign.com and are an Insider. If not, you can do so near the very top of the page, or just view the image here.) In a nutshell, Earth's magnetic field (the blue lines coming in and out of the Earth) protects us from a lot of bad stuff that lurks in outer space. One of these things is the solar wind, which, obviously, comes from the sun. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles that is ejected from the sun, due to their high kinetic energy and the very high temperature of the sun's corona. What is interesting is that the solar wind (the grey lines coming out from the sun) shape the Earth's magnetic field. You can see that they are squished in on the side of the Earth facing the sun, and are elongated on the side of the Earth away from the sun. Without this magnetic field, all of these nasty charged particles would go into the Earth and cause genetic mutations and all kinds of nasty stuff. We don't want people-eating plants, and the radiation exposure outside of Earth is a major concern in space travel -- especially with sending people to Mars.