James Webb telescope reveals 'impossible' auroras on Jupiter that have astronomers scratching their heads
On Christmas Day in 2023, scientists trained the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on Jupiter's auroras and captured a dazzling light show.
The researchers observed rapidly-changing features in Jupiter's vast auroras using JWST's infrared cameras. The findings could help explain how Jupiter's atmosphere is heated and cooled, according to a study published May 12 in Nature Communications.
"What a Christmas present it was — it just blew me away!" study coauthor Jonathan Nichols, a researcher studying auroras at the University of Leicester in the UK, said in a statement. "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."
Auroras form when high-energy charged particles, often released from the sun, slam into gases in a planet's atmosphere, causing the gas to glow. Jupiter's strong magnetic field scoops up charged particles such as electrons from the solar wind — and from eruptions on its highly volcanic moon Io — and sends them hurtling toward the planet's poles, where they put on a spectacle hundreds of times brighter than Earth's Northern Lights.
Related: NASA reveals 'glass-smooth lake of cooling lava' on surface of Jupiter's moon Io
In the new study, the team looked closely at infrared light emitted by the trihydrogen cation, H3+. This molecule forms in Jupiter's auroras when energetic electrons meet hydrogen in the planet's atmosphere. Its infrared emission sends heat out of Jupiter's atmosphere, but the molecule can also be destroyed by fast-moving electrons. To date, no ground-based telescopes have been sensitive enough to determine exactly how long H3+ sticks around.
But by using JWST's Near Infrared Camera, the team observed H3+ emissions that varied more than they expected. They found that H3+ lasts about two and a half minutes in Jupiter's atmosphere before being destroyed. That could help scientists tease out how much of an effect H3+ has on cooling Jupiter's atmosphere.
RELATED STORIES
—Mystery of Jupiter's powerful X-ray auroras finally solved
—Powerful solar winds squish Jupiter's magnetic field 'like a giant squash ball'
—Jupiter glows in stunning new James Webb telescope images
But the scientists don't have the full picture yet. They also found some puzzling data when they turned the Hubble Space Telescope toward Jupiter at the same time. Hubble captured the ultraviolet light coming from the auroras, while JWST captured infrared light.
"Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble's pictures," Nichols said in the statement. "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, which was previously thought to be impossible. We still don't understand how this happens."
In future work, the researchers plan to study the source of this unexpected pattern using additional JWST data as well as observations from NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been observing Jupiter from orbit since 2016.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
20 minutes ago
- Forbes
Northern Lights On Tuesday: 14 U.S. States On Aurora Alert
Aurora borealis, also known as Northern Lights, illuminates the night sky above the Kellostapuli ... More Fell in Kolari, Finnish Lapland, early on January 15, 2022. (Photo by IRENE STACHON/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images) The Northern Lights may be visible in northern U.S. state and central Canada on Tuesday night, according to a forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center. Sky-watchers in 14 U.S. states may have a chance to see the aurora borealis on the northern horizon as soon as it gets dark, though astronomical twilight often persists much of the night above about 50 degrees north latitude in July. Latest Northern Lights Forecast The agency's three-day forecast indicates a minor geomagnetic storm, measured at a value of G1 on a scale of G1 to G5. According to NOAA's forecast, the Kp index — which provides a rough guide to the intensity of auroral displays — may reach 5. In a discussion post, NOAA officials stated that a G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm is most likely on July 23 UTC, which translates to late on July 22 for North America. The 'unsettled to active' geomagnetic conditions — minor disturbances in Earth's magnetic field — could continue through Thursday, according to NOAA. NOAA's aurora viewline for July 22, 2025. Where The Northern Lights May Be Visible NOAA's latest aurora viewlines indicate that aurora displays are a possibility in northern U.S. states and Canada, with 14 U.S. states having a chance after dark on Tuesday, July 22. U.S. states that may see aurora include (northerly parts of) Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Areas far from light pollution are likely to offer the best views. However, high-latitude locations — such as Alaska, northern Canada Scandinavia and Iceland — will have a better chance. Check NOAA's 30-minute forecast or use the Glendale App for the latest forecasts. Why The Northern Lights Are Being Seen In The U.S. The imminent potential display of aurora is due to a high-speed stream of solar wind coming from a coronal hole — a gap in the sun's outer atmosphere, its corona, where solar wind escapes more freely into space. It's also of 'negative polarity,' which means its magnetic field is orientated in such a way that interactions with Earth's magnetic field are enhanced, if aligned just right. More generally, the possibility of displays of the aurora borealis at more southerly latitudes than is typically down to an increase in solar activity, which is currently at a 23-year high due to the ongoing solar maximum period. The sun is now thought to be on the wane, having peaked in late 2024, but solar maximum periods often have double peaks. Besides, the best aurora displays often occur in the few years after solar maximum. If the current solar cycle does have a long tail, good aurora sightings in the U.S. could result for a few years. What Causes The Northern Lights The Northern Lights are caused by the solar wind, a stream of charged particles from the sun interacting with Earth's magnetic field. Although the magnetic field deflects much of it, some charged particles accelerate along the magnetic field lines toward the polar regions, where they collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms, exciting them and causing them to release energy as light. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
'Chaos' reigns beneath the ice of Jupiter moon Europa, James Webb Space Telescope reveals
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are painting a new picture of Jupiter's moon Europa and revealing the hidden chemistry of the icy moon's interior. For decades, scientists pictured Europa's frozen surface as a still, silent shell. But the new observations reveal that it's actually a dynamic world that's far from frozen in time. "We think that the surface is fairly porous and warm enough in some areas to allow the ice to recrystallize rapidly," Richard Cartwright, a spectroscopist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory and lead author of the new study, said in a statement. Perhaps even more exciting is what this surface activity reveals about Europa's subsurface ocean. The presence of geologic activity and ongoing cycling between the subsurface and surface make "chaos terrains" — highly disrupted regions where blocks of ice seem to have broken off, drifted and refrozen — especially valuable as potential windows into Europa's interior. The study focused on two regions in Europa's southern hemisphere: Tara Regio and Powys Regio. Tara Regio, in particular, stands out as one of the moon's most intriguing areas. Observations from JWST detected crystalline ice both at the surface and deeper below — challenging previous assumptions about how ice is distributed on Europa. Related: Explore Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa in NASA virtual tour (photos) By measuring the spectral properties of these "chaos" regions using remotely sensed data, scientists could gain valuable insight about Europa's chemistry as well as its potential for habitability, they explained in the paper, which was published May 28 in The Planetary Science Journal. "Our data showed strong indications that what we are seeing must be sourced from the interior, perhaps from a subsurface ocean nearly 20 miles (30 kilometers) beneath Europa's thick icy shell," Ujjwal Raut, program manager at the Southwest Research Institute and co-author of the study, said in the statement. Hidden chemistry Raut and his team conducted laboratory experiments to study how water freezes on Europa, where the surface is constantly bombarded by charged particles from space. Unlike on Earth, where ice naturally forms a hexagonal crystal structure, the intense radiation on Europa disrupts the ice's structure, causing it to become what's known as amorphous ice — a disordered, noncrystalline form. The experiments played a crucial role in demonstrating how the ice changes over time. By studying how the ice transforms between different states, scientists can learn more about the moon's surface dynamics. When combined with fresh data from JWST, these findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that a vast, hidden liquid ocean lies beneath Europa's icy shell. "In this same region […] we see a lot of other unusual things, including the best evidence for sodium chloride, like table salt, probably originating from its interior ocean," Cartwright said. "We also see some of the strongest evidence for CO2 and hydrogen peroxide on Europa. The chemistry in this location is really strange and exciting." These regions, marked by fractured surface features, may point to geologic activity pushing material up from beneath Europa's icy shell. JWST's NIRSpec instrument is especially well suited for studying Europa's surface because it can detect key chemical signatures across a wide range of infrared wavelengths. This includes features associated with crystalline water ice and a specific form of carbon dioxide called ¹³CO₂, which are important for understanding the moon's geologic and chemical processes. NIRSpec can measure these features all at once while also creating detailed maps that show how these materials are distributed across Europa's surface. Its high sensitivity and ability to collect both spectral and spatial data make it an ideal tool for uncovering clues about what lies beneath Europa's icy crust. The team detected higher levels of carbon dioxide in these areas than in surrounding regions. They concluded that it likely originates from the subsurface ocean rather than from external sources like meteorites, which would have resulted in a more even distribution. Moreover, carbon dioxide is unstable under Europa's intense radiation environment, suggesting that these deposits are relatively recent and tied to ongoing geological processes. "The evidence for a liquid ocean underneath Europa's icy shell is mounting, which makes this so exciting as we continue to learn more," Raut said. RELATED STORIES —NASA Juno spacecraft picks up hints of activity on Jupiter's icy moon Europa —Jupiter's ocean moon Europa may have less oxygen than we thought —What next for NASA's Europa Clipper? The long road to Jupiter and its moons Another intriguing finding was the presence of carbon-13, an isotope of carbon. "Where is this 13CO2 coming from? It's hard to explain, but every road leads back to an internal origin, which is in line with other hypotheses about the origin of 12CO2 detected in Tara Regio," Cartwright said. This study arrives as NASA's Europa Clipper mission is currently en route to the Jovian moon, with an expected arrival in April 2030. The spacecraft will perform dozens of flybys, with each one bringing it closer to Europa's surface to gather critical data about the ocean hidden beneath the moon's icy crust. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
When did our solar system's planets form? Discovery of tiny meteorite may challenge the timeline
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A tiny meteorite is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about the origins of our solar system. New evidence found in shavings from a meteorite known as Northwest Africa 12264 — a 50-gram (1.8 ounces) piece of space rock that is believed to have formed in the outer solar system — suggests that rocky planets like Earth and distant icy bodies may have formed at the same time. This challenges the long-standing belief that planets closer to the sun formed before those in the outer solar system, the ones that lie beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Planets form within the rotating disks of gas and dust that surround young stars, where particles collide and stick together through a process known as accretion. As developing rocky planets heat up, they begin to differentiate, forming separate internal layers known as the core, mantle and crust. Scientists have thought that our solar system's inner rocky planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars —formed first (around 4.566 billion years ago), while gas giants and icy bodies in the outer solar system came together slightly later (4.563 billion years ago), due to the colder temperatures at a greater distance from the sun. Rocky planets farther out were also thought to form more slowly because their higher water and ice content would have delayed internal heating and core development. Analyzing the composition of the meteorite (which was purchased from a dealer in Morocco in 2018) revealed a ratio of chromium and oxygen that indicates it came from the outer part of the solar system. Using precise isotopic dating methods, the researchers found that the rock formed 4.564 billion years ago — just two to three million years after the solar system's earliest solid materials. Until now, such early formation was thought to be limited to bodies from the inner solar system, according to a statement announcing the new study. RELATED STORIES — How did the solar system form? — Solar system guide: Discover the order of planets and other amazing facts — What are meteorites? Evidence that rocky planets beyond Jupiter formed as rapidly, and at the same time, as the inner planets could transform our understanding of how planets take shape — not only in our solar system, but in planetary systems throughout the universe, the researchers said. Their findings were published on July 4 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
