Uranus magnetic field flips on and off by latest study:

TNPSC Current Affairs June 2017

Scientists have found that Uranus Magnetic Field gets flipped on and off like a switch every day as the planet rotates.

Researchers from Georgia institute of technology, US made the discovery based on the data provided from NASAs Voyager 2 spacecraft.

Researchers said that"The magnetosphere is open in one orientation, allowing solar wind to flow into the magnetosphere; it later closes, forming a shield against the solar wind and deflecting it away from the planet,"

This is different from Earth’s magnetosphere, which only switches between open and closed in response to changes in the solar wind.

Since the alignment of Earth’s magnetosphere is always toward the sun, the magnetic field threaded in the ever-present solar wind must change direction in order to reconfigure Earth’s field from closed to open. This frequently occurs with strong solar storms.