ESA - Rosetta - Rosetta lander measures Mars' magnetic environment around close approach

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Rosetta lander measures Mars' magnetic environment around close approach

25 February 2007

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Rosetta represented during closest approach to Mars

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An artist’s impression of Rosetta at its closest approach to Mars during the gravity assist manoeuvre that took place on 25 February 2007, at a distance of 250 km from the surface of the ‘Red Planet’.

Credits: ESA, image by C.Carreau

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This graph, drawn thanks to data collected by the ROMAP instrument on board Rosetta's Philae lander, shows how the magnetic environment of Mars becomes complex when the solar wind, initially proceeding unperturbed at supersonic speed (left of the image), encounters the boundary region of the magnetosphere (bow shock), gets decelerated to subsonic speed and becomes turbulent.

The data were collected around closest approach to the Red Planet during the Mars swingby on 25 February 2007.

Time is ploted on the horizontal axis versus intensity of the magnetic field on the vertical axis.

Credits: ROMAP / Philae / ESA Rosetta

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