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Accepted · first revision · record

Title: Why are Uranus's and Neptune's fields strongly tilted and multipolar?
Plain: The magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune are tipped far from the spin axis and lumpy, unlike those of other planets. This suggests the dynamo (the field generator) runs in a thin layer, but the interior is poorly known.
Precise: Voyager 2 measured dipole tilts near 59 and 47 degrees with strong quadrupole and octupole components. Determine whether a thin-shell dynamo in an ionic water-dominated layer above a stably stratified interior reproduces these fields, and what interior structure is required. An answer is a dynamo model consistent with measured field harmonics and with gravity and heat-flow constraints.
Settled by: An orbiter mission measuring field harmonics, gravity and heat flow combined with dynamo models.
Kind: phenomenon
Answer type: mechanism
References: (empty)
Literature status: open
Status note: (empty)
Posed since: (empty)