NASA Webb Reveals Breathtaking Detail And Mysterious Activity In Jupiter's Auroras
Also called the gas giant for being a planet with a high concentration of gaseous hydrogen and helium, Jupiter's large reservoir of gaseous elements doesn't simply lie idly in its atmosphere. These gases sometimes collide with charged particles from the Sun, and whenever this collision occurs near Jupiter's magnetic field, it leads to a spectacular phenomenon called an aurora. Auroras are usually seen in the form of glowing light.
Jonathan Nichols and his team of scientists from the University of Leicester have made some puzzling discoveries about Jupiter's Auroras with JWST's Near-Infrared Camera. Nichols explained that the team expected Jupiter's Aurora to appear and disappear gradually; however, the team observed the entire auroral region "fizzing and popping with light.”
In Addition, the team zoomed in on aurora-made trihydrogen cation (H3+) emissions, and they reported that the variations observed in the H3+ emissions are way more than was previously imagined. As JWST was being used to capture the features of Jupiter's auroras, the team also took pictures with the Hubble Space Telescope simultaneously. They were perplexed by what they saw. Commenting on it, Nichols noted, "Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble’s pictures." Hence, the team aims to investigate the differences between Hubble's and Webb's data in future studies.
While several astounding and beautiful auroras have also been observed on Neptune, Earth, Saturn, Mars, and Uranus, auroras observed in Jupiter are usually the most spectacular because they are always more vigorous, larger, and even brighter. This is unsurprising to researchers since Jupiter is well known for its strong magnetic field due to its large magnetosphere. Moreover, considering its gas-rich atmosphere and the colossal amount of charged particles released by the Sun, Jupiter's atmosphere sets the stage nicely for outstanding aurora phenomena.
