Heliophysics Education Community meeting presentation – August 2025

Presentation | Grades 6-12+ | This presentation by Dr. Jared Espley to the Heliophysics Education Community explains how the Sun sends a stream of charged particles called the solar wind that travels all the way to Earth and throughout the solar system. Fortunately, Earth is protected by an invisible shield created by Earth’s magnetic field. But what about Mars and Jupiter? NASA flies magnetometers to observe solar wind Impacts on planets. Magnetometers are one of the most commonly flown scientific instruments across NASA missions. Numerous heliophysics missions study magnetic fields in space. Planetary missions can also study planetary magnetic fields, whether intrinsic or induced. MAVEN has detected induced magnetic fields on Mars caused by solar events. JUNO is observing Jupiter’s magnetic field, which is very different from other planets. Scientists are trying to understand the magnetospheres, the near space environment at these planets.

Credit: NASA HEAT

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