Energetic particles in the Jovian magnetotail

When the solar wind hits Jupiter's magnetic field, it creates a long magnetotail trailing behind the planet that channels material out of the Jupiter system. The New Horizons spacecraft traversed the length of the jovian magnetotail to >2500 jovian radii (R-J; 1 R-J = 71,400 kilometers), observing a high-temperature, multispecies population of energetic particles. Velocity dispersions, anisotropies, and compositional variation seen in the deep-tail (greater than or similar to 500 R-J) with a similar to 3-day periodicity are similar to variations seen closer to Jupiter in Galileo data. The signatures suggest plasma streaming away from the planet and injection sites in the near-tail region (similar to 200 to 400 R-J) that could be related to magnetic reconnection events. The tail structure remains coherent at least until it reaches the magnetosheath at 1655 R-J.