Magnetized planets have an area above their ionospheres which traps energetic particles and plasma along magnetic fields, referred to as magnetospheres. The extension of the magnetosphere away from the sun known as a magnetotail is modeled as magnetic flux tubes. Mars and Venus both have strong magnetic fields resulting in flux tubes from the solar wind gathering at high altitudes of the ionosphere on the sun side of the planets and causing the flux tubes to distort along the magnetic field lines creating flux ropes. Particles from the solar wind magnetic field lines can transfer to the magnetic field lines of a planet's magnetosphere through the processes of magnetic reconnection that occurs when a flux tube from the solar wind and a flux tube from the magnetosphere in opposite field directions get close to one another.