According to a new paper from Imperial College , Saturn’s magnetic field is refusing to confirm to existing thinking.
The findings, which appear in a Cassini end-of-mission results article in Science, show that Saturn’s magnetic field has a tilt of less than 0.01 of a degree.
Scientists had previously thought that a planet could only form a magnetic field if there is discernible tilt. Earth’s, for example, is 11 degrees.
Professor Michele Dougherty explained that measuring the tilt itself is also challenging. "Each time we more accurately measure the tilt of Saturn’s magnetic field, it gets smaller, until now we are in a position where it is smaller than a hundredth of a degree."
The tilt is important because it sustains currents in the liquid metal layer deep within the planet. On Sarth the liquid is iron-nickel surrounding the solid iron core.
Saturn’s core is thought to consist of a metallic hydrogen layer around it’s small, rocky core.
There’s a possibility that the atmosphere on the planet is obstructing Imperial’s magnetometer which was onboard the Cassini probe. However scientists still think this might change how they look at magnetic fields.
Saturn might also have more than one way of generating magnetic fields, with a deeper layer made up of liquid hydrogen producing small, stable fields.
Even weirder is the discovery that an electrical current flows from the D ring of Saturn to the planet’s surface.
Despite burning up in Saturn’s atmosphere in September 2017 the mission is still yielding interesting data.
The Imperial team is also considering combining results from the magnetometer with gravity data to build a more accurate picture of the size, mass and density of Saturn’s core.
While it’s unusual to here scientists describe things as weird, but Saturn’s mysteries do often give experts some real head scratchers.
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