Jupiter Aurora seen by the Chandra X Ray Space Observatory.

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NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured the largest data set yet of Jupiter's colorful lights called aurora, yielding a pretty picture that could help solve some mysteries about the phenomenon. <br /><br />The phenomenon is similar to the Northern Lights seen on Earth, thought on a much larger scale.<br /><br />"Jupiter has auroras bigger than our entire planet," said Randy Gladstone of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. In a NASA statement today, Gladstone called the purple rings in a new colorized image "Northern Lights on steroids. They're hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth."<br /><br />Unlike Earth's auroras, Jupiter's hyper-auroras never stop. "We see them every time we look," Gladstone said. <br /><br />On Earth, the most intense auroras are caused by charged particles unleashed in solar storms. But Jupiter generates its own lights, Gladstone explained. The giant planet turns on it axis once every 10 hours and drags its planetary magnetic field around with it. This spin produces 10 million volts around its poles.<br /><br />"Jupiter's polar regions are crackling with electricity," says Gladstone, "and this sets the stage for non-stop auroras."<br /><br />Jupiter's volcanic moon Io feeds particles of oxygen and sulfur into the Jovian system. The particles become charged, contributing to the lights. <br /><br />But scientists don't know exactly how volcanic exhaust meanders from Io out through Jupiter's magnetosphere and back to Jupiter's poles. "We're still trying to figure it out," Gladstone said.<br /><br />There's another mystery: There is an X-ray "pulsar" inside Jupiter's northern auroras. Sometimes Chandra sees it, sometimes not. When it's on, the pulsar emits gigawatt bursts of X-rays with a regular beat of 45 minutes. It might be solar powered. <br /><br />"Maybe Jupiter's magnetic field, when it gets hit by a solar wind gust, rings like a bell with a 45-minute period," Gladstone speculates. "There are many other possibiliti <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Sweet! That is a beautiful image. I have a particular fondness for Chandra, so it's exciting to see it involved. I just wish I had something more useful to contribute to your thread. In any case, thank you for posting that article. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>