How does the solar wind shape Neptune’s magnetosphere?

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Clouds in Neptune's atmosphere — Neptune A photograph of clouds in Neptune's atmosphere, taken by Voyager 2 in August 1989. The view is from below the planet's equator, and north is up. The Great Dark Spot (center left) is 13,000 km (8,100 miles)—about the diameter of Earth—in its longer dimension. Accompanying it are bright, wispy clouds thought to comprise methane ice crystals. At higher southern latitudes lies a smaller, eye-shaped dark spot with a light core (bottom left). Just above that spot is a bright cloud dubbed Scooter. Each of these cloud features was seen to travel eastward but at a different rate, the Great Dark Spot moving the slowest.

The solar wind—a stream of electrically charged particles flowing from the Sun—significantly distorts the shape of Neptune’s magnetosphere.1

While Neptune’s internally generated magnetic field is approximately dipole-shaped, the solar wind exerts pressure that compresses this field on the sunward side of the planet. Conversely, the wind stretches the magnetosphere into a long tail extending in the direction away from the Sun. This interaction defines the region of space dominated by Neptune's magnetic field and its trapped charged particles, such as protons and electrons.1