<\/p>\n The team found that Saturn’s magnetic cusp is dragged to the right as seen from the sun. In terms of a clock face, Earth’s magnetic cusp is at 12, while Saturn’s is at 1 or 3. The discovery could be an important one for future spacecraft missions to the Saturnian system that aim to discover if its icy moon Enceladus<\/a> is capable of supporting life in its global ocean.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n “A better understanding of Saturn\u2019s environment is especially urgent now as plans for our return to Saturn and its moon Enceladus start to be developed,” team member Andrew Coates of University College of London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory said in a statement<\/a>. “These results feed into the excitement that we are going back there. This time we will look for evidence of habitability and for potential signs of life<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Enceladus is such a drag<\/p>\n Saturn is the second-largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter<\/a>, and the Saturnian magnetic field is ten times as wide as the gas giant itself. This new research determined that its uneven nature is the result of the planet’s rapid rotation and the fact that, as it spins, Saturn drags a heavy soup of plasma around with it.<\/p>\n This matter is the result of gases emitted by the Saturnian moons, particularly Enceladus, which is known to spray out icy plumes that originate from its subsurface ocean.<\/p>\n “This study also provides critical evidence for a long-held theory \u2013 that the rapid spin of massive planets like Saturn with active moons replaces the solar wind as the dominant force shaping magnetospheres. It shows that Saturn\u2019s magnetosphere, as well as the magnetospheres of other rapidly spinning gas giants, likely differ fundamentally from Earth’s,” Coates said. “Enceladus itself is a key driver of this environment, releasing huge amounts of water vapour that gets ionised, loading the magnetosphere with heavy plasma that is then pulled around as the planet spins.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Saturn’s moon Enceladus, the main culprit for its wonky magnetic field (Image credit: NASA\/JPL)<\/p>\n Team leader Zhonghua Yao of the University of Hong Kong explained that the differences between the structure of the Saturnian magnetic field and that of Earth’s magnetosphere<\/a> point to a unified fundamental process that governs how outflows of charged particles from the sun, known as the solar wind, interact with different planets. <\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/UEhoKAEPHj8ZeKB3Z9Hqub.jpg\")
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