Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Science. 2012 May 4;336(6081):567-70. doi: 10.1126/science.1217013. Epub 2012 Apr 5.
Observations with the Venus Express magnetometer and low-energy particle detector revealed magnetic field and plasma behavior in the near-Venus wake that is symptomatic of magnetic reconnection, a process that occurs in Earth's magnetotail but is not expected in the magnetotail of a nonmagnetized planet such as Venus. On 15 May 2006, the plasma flow in this region was toward the planet, and the magnetic field component transverse to the flow was reversed. Magnetic reconnection is a plasma process that changes the topology of the magnetic field and results in energy exchange between the magnetic field and the plasma. Thus, the energetics of the Venus magnetotail resembles that of the terrestrial tail, where energy is stored and later released from the magnetic field to the plasma.
金星快车磁强计和低能粒子探测器的观测结果揭示了金星近尾迹中磁场和等离子体的行为，这些行为表明发生了磁重联，这一过程发生在地球的磁尾，但在像金星这样没有磁化的行星的磁尾中是不被预期的。2006 年 5 月 15 日，该区域的等离子体流向行星，并且垂直于流向的磁场分量发生反转。磁重联是一个改变磁场拓扑结构并导致磁场和等离子体之间能量交换的等离子体过程。因此，金星磁尾的能量学类似于地球磁尾，其中能量被存储并随后从磁场释放到等离子体中。
