Space might be a vacuum but it is far from empty, awash with charged particles and electromagnetic fields. This study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, employed ESA-funded software called the Spacecraft Plasma Interaction System (SPIS), used to model the interaction between spacecraft and these surrounding environments.

“This study marks the first time that these simulations have been compared to and confirmed with actual spacecraft measurements from a planet beyond Earth,” explains ESA Research Fellow Mika Holmberg, who spent three years at ESA’s Space Environments and Effects section at the ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands.