Editing Interplanetary medium (section)

==Interaction with planets==
How the interplanetary medium interacts with planets depends on whether they have [[magnetic field]]s or not. Bodies such as the [[Moon]] have no magnetic field and the [[solar wind]] can impact directly on their surface. Over billions of years, the [[lunar regolith]] has acted as a collector for solar wind particles, and so studies of rocks from the [[geology of the Moon|lunar surface]] can be valuable in studies of the solar wind.

High-energy particles from the solar wind impacting on the lunar surface also cause it to emit faintly at [[X-ray]] wavelengths.

Planets with their own magnetic field, such as the Earth and [[Jupiter]], are surrounded by a [[magnetosphere]] within which their magnetic field is dominant over the [[Sun]]'s. This disrupts the flow of the solar wind, which is channelled around the magnetosphere. Material from the solar wind can "leak" into the magnetosphere, causing [[aurora (astronomy)|aurorae]] and also populating the [[Van Allen radiation belts]] with ionised material.