The moons of Jupiter cause disturbances in its dawn

The aurora of Jupiter is the most powerful and most amazing light display of our solar system. It looks like the aurora we see here on Earth but thousands of times brighter and much bigger than them.

On Earth, northern lights appear briefly in the poles of the planet. They are produced when the solar wind enters the earth's atmosphere. In contrast, Jupiter's aurora shines all the time and is thought to be influenced by internal factors in the system.

Although the dawn of Jupiter does not require solar activity, it certainly involves an interaction between the Jovian planet and its moons. With the help of data collected by NASA's Juno probe, researchers discovered that two of Jupiter's moons were causing "footprints" in the dawn of the planet. These footprints are disturbances of the aurora caused by the presence of moon Io or Ganymede. When Io passes near Jupiter, he creates a double trail of loops and loops in a small section of a dawn. These squiggles disappear when the moon moves away from the planet.

The other moon Ganymede also creates a luminous imprint on the dawn. Initially, the footprint looked like a single point, but closer views showed that the place was divided into two. Researchers say that Ganymede is the only moon in orbit around Jupiter that has its own magnetic field. Thus, the particular imprint could represent the interaction of two magnetospheres.

The auroras of Jupiter were discovered by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979 and since then they have been observed by many telescopes. But the forces driving the aurora are still poorly understood. The latest observations, however, can help researchers understand the interaction between the planet and its moons and how powerful magnetic forces can act on the natural environment.

"We present infrared observations, obtained with the Juno spacecraft.Io, this show presents a swirling pattern that resembles a Vortex street of von Kármán," the authors wrote in the study

" Well downstream of the main auroral points, the extended tail is divided into two, appear as a pair of emission characteristics, which can provide a distant measurement of the Ganymede magnetosphere.These features suggest that the interaction magnetohydrodynamics between Jupiter and its moon is more complex than previously predicted. "