The "confusing" magnetic field of Jupiter is different from the others

Jupiter is strange for a number of reasons. This is of course the largest planet in our solar system. It may be home to the most intense radiation environments. And, according to a new study, it has a magnetic field different from that of any other known planet.

NASA's Juno orbit, a spaceship the size of a basketball court, observes the gaseous giant circling the planet at varying distances. Scientists have recently mapped Jupiter's magnetic field at four depths and noticed a strange hemispheric dichotomy: the magnetic field of the northern hemisphere was in no way comparable to that of the southern hemisphere.

"It's a puzzling puzzle," said the study's first author, Kimberly Moore, a PhD student at Harvard. Gizmodo. "Why is it so complicated in the northern hemisphere but so simple in the southern hemisphere?"

Many scientists believe that magnetic fields come from electrically conductive metals moving inside the planets – the moving electric charge produces a magnetic field.

The rotating metal columns in the outer core of the Earth give it a magnetic field similar to that of an inclined bar magnet. Saturn also has a field like a bar magnet, although its field is aligned with its axis of rotation. Uranus and Neptune have weaker and more complex fields, as if they had several cross-bar magnets.

But there is Jupiter. Juno scientists mapped the planet's magnetic field at four locations on the surface of the planet at three different depths. They discovered that the southern hemisphere has only one magnetic pole, but that the northern hemisphere has a complex field.

The map revealed an intensely magnetic point near the equator they called the Great Blue Spot, and a longer band from which the field emanated from the pole. The field also seems more concentrated at shallower depths, according to the paper published today in Nature.

Scientists must now try to understand what is happening. "We think we might be able to explain it based on the inside of Jupiter," Moore said. Gizmodo.

On Earth, our magnetic field is generated by the inner core heating the outer liquid core and the driving motion. But perhaps Jupiter's core is more extended with a more complex movement, leading to the entangled magnetic field. Or maybe there are liquids of different compositions that can change the way the magnetic field works.

It is important to note that Juno has higher resolution images of the northern hemisphere of Jupiter than of its southern hemisphere. But Moore said Gizmodo that the probe has taken enough data to conclude that the differences are real and not artefacts of the data.

Researchers Gizmodo spoke with those who were not involved in the study found his results exciting.

Krista Soderlund, an associate researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, said that "the unexpected discovery of the northern hemisphere flow band, the" big blue spot "and the predominantly dipolar southern hemisphere challenge models of existing dynamo. Gizmodo in an email.

She thought that the ability to measure changes in the magnetic field over time could be a powerful tool for understanding how the fluid moves beneath the surface of the planet.

It could also help scientists to learn more about global magnetic fields, like why Jupiter and Saturn have such different fields, she said.

Juno will continue to orbit Jupiter until 2022, taking data along the way. "There is a lot more data to collect, so I hope there will be more things to study," Moore said. "The internal structures that we propose are speculative. One, or more, or none could be true. "