Like Earth, Mercury has a magnetosphere, a zone of interaction between its magnetic field and incoming plasma from the Sun. But scientists have been unsure about whether Mercury also has the concentration of charged particles around its equator that Earth does.
David Schriver at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues argue that Mercury does have such a quasi-trapped particle belt, citing simulations of the planet's dynamics and data from instruments aboard the MESSENGER spacecraft, which entered into orbit around Mercury in March 2011. The craft ploughed through an equatorial population of 1–10-kiloelectron-volt ions and electrons at a distance of about half the planet's radius from the surface.
The authors compare the belt to Earth's ring current and say that it could influence the pattern of surface weathering and the formation of a thin atmosphere around Mercury.
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Mercury's plasma belt. Nature 480, 416 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/480416b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/480416b
