{"id":796108,"date":"2025-05-15T06:51:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=796108"},"modified":"2025-05-15T06:51:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:51:03","slug":"jupiters-auroras-caught-on-film-watch-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=796108","title":{"rendered":"Jupiter\u2019s auroras caught on film. Watch here!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Webb Captures Jupiter\u2019s Aurora\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U2T8LpD4IiI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><em>Watch a video showing the James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s new discoveries surrounding Jupiter\u2019s auroras. Video via NASA.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Science matters. Wonder matters. You matter. Join our 2025 Donation Campaign today.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Webb watched Jupiter\u2019s auroras<\/strong> flickering, fluctuating and undulating at the Jovian north pole.<\/li>\n<li><strong>On Earth, auroras occur when energetic particles<\/strong> from the sun get funneled inward by our magnetic field and slam into the atmosphere near Earth\u2019s poles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jupiter auroras are on a grander scale.<\/strong> They\u2019re both larger and hundreds of times brighter than Earth\u2019s. See new video of Jupiter\u2019s auroras from Webb.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NASA published this original article on May 12, 2025. Edits by EarthSky.<\/p>\n<h3>Jupiter\u2019s auroras caught on film<\/h3>\n<p>NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the auroras on our solar system\u2019s largest planet. The dancing lights Webb observed on Jupiter are hundreds of times brighter than those on Earth. With Webb\u2019s advanced sensitivity, astronomers have studied the phenomena to better understand Jupiter\u2019s magnetosphere.<\/p>\n<p>When high-energy particles enter a planet\u2019s atmosphere near its magnetic poles and collide with atoms or molecules of gas, it creates auroras. On Earth, we call auroras the northern and southern lights.<\/p>\n<p>Not only are the auroras on Jupiter huge in size, they\u2019re also hundreds of times more energetic than those in Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Earth\u2019s auroras are caused by solar storms. When charged particles from the sun rain down on the upper atmosphere, they energize gases and cause them to glow in shades of red, green and purple.<\/p>\n<p>Jupiter has an additional source for its auroras. The strong magnetic field of the gas giant grabs charged particles from its surroundings. This includes not only the charged particles within the solar wind but also the particles thrown into space by its orbiting moon Io. Io is known for its numerous and large volcanoes. In fact, Io\u2019s volcanoes spew particles that escape the moon\u2019s gravity and orbit Jupiter.<\/p>\n<p>The sun releases a barrage of charged particles that also reaches the planet. Jupiter\u2019s large and powerful magnetic field captures all of the charged particles and accelerates them to tremendous speeds. These speedy particles slam into the planet\u2019s atmosphere at high energies. This excites the gas and causes it to glow.<\/p>\n<h3>New views from Webb<\/h3>\n<p>Now, Webb is providing new insights into the auroras on Jupiter. The telescope\u2019s sensitivity allows astronomers to capture fast-varying auroral features. A team of scientists led by Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom collected new data from Webb\u2019s Near-Infrared Camera on December 25, 2023. Nichols said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>What a Christmas present it was, it just blew me away! We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting them to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In particular, the team studied an emission from the trihydrogen cation (H3+), which auroras can create. They found this emission is far more variable than they previously believed. The observations will help develop scientists\u2019 understanding of how Jupiter\u2019s upper atmosphere heats and cools.<\/p>\n<p>The scientists published their results on May 12, 2025, in the peer-reviewed journal <em>Nature Communications<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_510380\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-510380\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-510380\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">These observations of Jupiter\u2019s auroras are from Webb\u2019s Near-Infrared Camera on December 25, 2023. Scientists found that the emission from trihydrogen cation, known as H3+, is far more variable than they previously believed. H3+ is created by the impact of high energy electrons on molecular hydrogen. Webb can easily capture this emission, which shines brightly in the infrared. Image via NASA\/ ESA\/ CSA\/ Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester)\/ Mahdi Zamani (ESA\/Webb).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Mysteries of Jupiter\u2019s auroras<\/h3>\n<p>The team also uncovered some unexplained observations in their data. Nichols said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>What made these observations even more special is that we also took pictures simultaneously in the ultraviolet with NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope. Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble\u2019s pictures. This has left us scratching our heads. In order to cause the combination of brightness seen by both Webb and Hubble, we need to have a combination of high quantities of very low-energy particles hitting the atmosphere. This was previously thought to be impossible. We still don\u2019t understand how this happens.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The team now plans to study this discrepancy between the Hubble and Webb data and to explore the wider implications for Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere and space environment. They also intend to follow up this research with more Webb observations, which they can compare with data from NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft to better explore the cause of the enigmatic bright emission.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line: The Webb space telescope has captured video of Jupiter\u2019s auroras, showing them popping, fizzing and moving at great speed. See the video here.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Dynamic infrared aurora on Jupiter<\/p>\n<p>Via NASA<\/p>\n<p>Read more: Heatwave on Jupiter, from its aurora<\/p>\n<p>Read more: Auroras on Jupiter\u2019s moons seen in new light<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"cp-load-after-post\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post-author\">\n<h4>EarthSky Voices<\/h4>\n<p>                    View Articles\n                  <\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-tags\">\n<h6 data-udy-fe=\"text_7c58270d\">About the Author:<\/h6>\n<p>Members of the EarthSky community &#8211; including scientists, as well as science and nature writers from across the globe &#8211; weigh in on what&#8217;s important to them.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/space\/jupiters-auroras-video-webb\/?rand=772280\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch a video showing the James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s new discoveries surrounding Jupiter\u2019s auroras. Video via NASA. Science matters. Wonder matters. You matter. Join our 2025 Donation Campaign today. Webb&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":796109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-796108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=796108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/796109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=796108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=796108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=796108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}