Scientists finally solve mystery of Jupiter’s spectacular X aurora

Scientists have solved the decades-long mystery of how Jupiter produces regular x-ray auroras.

X-rays are part of the explosions of visible and invisible light on the gigantic planet triggered by charged ion particles interacting with its atmosphere.

A similar phenomenon occurs on Earth, which creates the Northern Lights – also known as the Northern Lights – which are observed during the colder months in the northernmost countries.

But Jupiter’s auroras are much more powerful than those on Earth in that they release hundreds of gigawatts of energy. This energy from Jupiter’s north and south poles is so intense that it would be enough to briefly supply energy to every human being.

A research team, co-led by University College London (UCL) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, has finally figured out how these auroras are created after 40 years.

Scientists discovered that the x-rays were triggered by regular vibrations in Jupiter’s magnetic field lines that surround the planet in vertical loops that connect from its north pole to its south pole.

These vibrations create waves of plasma – ionized gas – which send heavy ion particles to “surf” along magnetic field lines until they shatter in the planet’s atmosphere and release colossal amounts. energy in the form of X-rays.

X-ray bursts were produced every 27 minutes in scientists’ observations.

The charged ion particles, which collide with Jupiter’s atmosphere, come from volcanic gas flowing into space from giant volcanoes on Io, one of Jupiter’s 79 moons.

This gas ionizes – its atoms are stripped of electrons due to collisions in Jupiter’s immediate environment – and forms a plasma ring around Jupiter known as Io Plasma Torus.

Dr William Dunn, from the Space Science Laboratory at UCL Mullard, said: “We have seen Jupiter produce auroras X for four decades, but we didn’t know how it happened. We only knew they were produced when ions crashed into the planet’s atmosphere.

“Now we know that these ions are carried by plasma waves – an explanation that has not been offered before, even though a similar process produces Earth’s own aurora.

“So it could be a universal phenomenon, present in many different environments in space.”

Researchers combined close-up observations of Jupiter’s environment from NASA’s Juno satellite – which has orbiting our solar system’s largest planet since 2016 – with simultaneous x-ray measurements from the XMM observatory -Newton from the European Space Agency, which is in Earth orbit.

These observations were made continuously for a period of 26 hours.

Scientists have found a clear correlation between the waves in the plasma detected by Juno and the auroral x-ray flares at Jupiter’s north pole recorded by X-MM Newton. The researchers then used computer modeling to confirm that the waves would drive the heavy ion particles into Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Professor Graziella Branduardi-Raymont said: “X-rays are usually produced by extremely powerful and violent phenomena such as black holes and neutron stars, so it seems strange that simple planets also produce them.

“We can never visit black holes because they are beyond space travel, but Jupiter is on our doorstep. With the arrival of the Juno satellite in Jupiter’s orbit, astronomers now have a fantastic opportunity to closely study an environment that produces x-rays.

It is not clear why Jupiter’s magnetic field lines vibrate regularly, but there are theories that the vibrations could be caused by the solar wind or by high-speed plasma flows in the planet’s magnetosphere. – the area controlled by this magnetic field. Jupiter’s magnetosphere is about 20,000 times more powerful than that of Earth.

Dr Zhonghua Yao said similar processes are likely to occur around Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and “probably also exoplanets”.

The new study was published in the journal Scientists progress.