Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which operates the Webb and Hubble telescopes, have obtained a maximum magnified image of Jupiter's poles and showed spectacular auroras of the gas giant planet. Scientists assure that they are 100 times brighter than the aurora borealis on Earth. This is reported by Mashable, reports UNN.
Details
These alien light shows are not only gigantic, compared to those that people are used to seeing in the sky above Earth, but also fed from an additional source. Jupiter's strong magnetic field captures charged particles from its immediate cosmic environment.
This means that it not only captures solar wind from the Sun to create these light shows, but also particles ejected from the neighboring moon Io, one of Jupiter's 97 moons and the most volcanic world in the Solar System.
For a detailed observation of the aurora borealis on Jupiter, we used the Webb Space Telescope, a partnership of NASA and its European and Canadian colleagues. What we found was a cause-and-effect puzzle. When we zoomed in on the image with the Hubble Telescope, which can detect ultraviolet light, we thought we would find signs of incoming electrons bombarding the upper atmosphere of Jupiter.
But what they recorded turned out to be an incredibly bright "afterglow" without manifestations of the "initial solar wind attack."
For three decades, scientists have been meticulously studying the interaction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus with space, observing the light emitted by charged molecules in the upper layers of their atmospheres. Recently, astronomers were even able to see the strange auroras of Neptune. These studies help scientists understand what is happening high above the planet's surface and deep within its magnetic field.
Recall
Earlier, the Webb Telescope was able to capture for the first time Neptune's auroras in stunning infrared detail. The activity of the auroras is located in the mid-latitudes of the planet, not at the poles.