Jupiter’s Magnetosphere

Jupiter’s Magnetosphere
(a) Created by the planet’s rotation, the ion-trapping regions of Jupiter’s magnetosphere (in orange, analogous
to the Van Allen belts) extend into the realm of the Galilean moons. Gases from Io and Europa form tori
(doughnut-shaped regions) in the magnetosphere. Some of Io’s particles are pulled by the field onto the planet.
Pushed outward by the solar wind, the magnetosphere has a “magnetotail” pointing away from
the Sun. The magnetotail is often over 500 million km long and sometimes it reaches all the way to Saturn.