The Mystery of Jupiter’s Aurora Finally Solved After 40 Years

The Mystery of Jupiter’s Aurora Finally Solved After 40 Years

Earth is not the only world adorned with the glowing atmospheric phenomenon that is aurora. In fact, in a Solar System aurora competition, the clear winner would be Jupiter. The so-called King of Planets is crowned with the most powerful auroras in the Solar System, permanently circling both its poles.

Because they glow only in non-visible wavelengths, we can’t see them with the naked eye, so it wasn’t until just 40 years ago that they were discovered. Ever since, scientists have wondered how these auroras produce periodic bursts of X-radiation.

Now, they think they’ve solved it. Using simultaneous observations from Jupiter probe Juno and X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton, a team led by planetary scientist Zhonghua Yao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China has linked the X-ray bursts to vibrations in the gas giant’s magnetic field lines. ( Source : https://www.sciencealert.com/ )