A Would a larger Martian moon create a stronger magnetic field

[Nick Michaud]

I have read a previous forum discussing the possibility of creating a stronger magnetic field on Mars using tidal forces by putting a larger moon in orbit around Mars. My question is how large of an object would it have to be compared to Mars and how distant would its orbit need to be from the planet?

 

[davenn]

Hi there
welcome to PF

I have read a previous forum discussing the possibility of creating a stronger magnetic field on Mars using tidal forces by putting a larger moon in orbit around Mars. My question is how large of an object would it have to be compared to Mars and how distant would its orbit need to be from the planet?

do you know/understand how a planetary magnetic field is created, eg Earths one ?

then see how that fits in with a larger or smaller moonDAve

 

[Atbuar]

probably we can not create such a moon for Mars :) the magnetic field is produced from inside of planet. I mean the core and the movement around it. instead of moon, we can struggle with inside of mars, it can be easier..

 

[rootone]

A magnetic field for a planet is generated by movement of the liquid core.
Mars' core is thought to be no longer liquid which explains why it only has weak residual magnetic fields.
If a very large moon was engineered into the right orbit, it could *possibly* result in the core reheating due to tidal friction.
I don't think the result would be very predictable though, and it would need to be a really big moon with a close orbit to reheat the interior of Mars significantly.
I guess the largest asteroid Ceres might do the job, but there is of course no way or any forseeable way to actually achieve that. (It's about 1/7 of the the size of Mars itself).
A problem with the scenario is that this Moon would experience even greater tidal stress than Mars, so there is the possibility it might disintegrate