chongo@nsc.UUCP (Landon Noll) (01/19/86)
Reports from JPL (as of Jan 15) indicate that Voyager has not detected a magnetic field. Does anyone know if this is due to a failure of Voyager? Does Voyager have a diagnostic reference field to compare against? Is it that Uranus not have a magnetic field or maybe the field it just too low to detected? chongo <> /\oo/\
doug@escher.UUCP (Douglas J Freyburger) (01/26/86)
> Reports from JPL (as of Jan 15) indicate that Voyager has not detected > a magnetic field. Does anyone know if this is due to a failure of Voyager? > Does Voyager have a diagnostic reference field to compare against? Is it > that Uranus not have a magnetic field or maybe the field it just too low > to detected? > chongo <> /\oo/\ On the closest encounter day (Fri 24 Jan), they finally detected a nice strong field. The pole is aligned with the rotational axis and is currently Very compressed by the solar wind because one pole is facing rite at the sun now. The field goes from very weak to very strong quite close to the planet all at once and close to the planet. The reference field is the sun's. It is strong enough to detect way out there w/o any problems. The Poineers 10 and 11 still felt the solar field and the solar wind the last time I heard (almost a year ago). They are farther out that most orignally thought the tranisition from solar field to galactic field was. -- Doug Freyburger DOUG@JPL-ROBOTICS, DOUG@JPL-VLSI, JPL Mail Stop 23 escher!doug, escher!teleop!doug Pasadena, CA 91109 etc. Disclaimers: My opinions are not those of JPL, Caltech, NASA, etc. Apologies to companies I'm forgetting to quote as trademark holders. Net site JPL-ROBOTICS has its net link down lately, so no mail gets though.
steve@jplgodo.UUCP (Steve Schlaifer x3171 156/224) (01/28/86)
> > Reports from JPL (as of Jan 15) indicate that Voyager has not detected > > a magnetic field. Does anyone know if this is due to a failure of Voyager? > > Does Voyager have a diagnostic reference field to compare against? Is it > > that Uranus not have a magnetic field or maybe the field it just too low > > to detected? > > chongo <> /\oo/\ > > On the closest encounter day (Fri 24 Jan), they finally > detected a nice strong field. The pole is aligned with the > rotational axis and is currently Very compressed by the > solar wind because one pole is facing rite at the sun now. > The field goes from very weak to very strong quite close to > the planet all at once and close to the planet. > > The reference field is the sun's. It is strong enough to > detect way out there w/o any problems. The Poineers 10 and > 11 still felt the solar field and the solar wind the last > time I heard (almost a year ago). They are farther out > that most orignally thought the tranisition from solar > field to galactic field was. > -- > > Doug Freyburger DOUG@JPL-ROBOTICS, DOUG@JPL-VLSI, > JPL Mail Stop 23 escher!doug, escher!teleop!doug > Pasadena, CA 91109 etc. > > Disclaimers: My opinions are not those of JPL, Caltech, > NASA, etc. Apologies to companies I'm forgetting to quote > as trademark holders. Net site JPL-ROBOTICS has its net > link down lately, so no mail gets though. Latest information (this morning's press conference 27 Jan) gives the magnetic dipole tipped about 55 degrees from the spin axis of Uranus. The North magnetic pole is in the dark hemisphere; this is the pole that the north end of a compass would point to.