Scientists have finally solved the mystery of the spectacular X-ray aurors at Jupiterpit

Scientists have solved a decade-long puzzle about how Jupiter creates regular auroras from X-rays.

X-rays are part of a giant planet’s visible and invisible light bursts, which are triggered by charged ionic particles interacting with its atmosphere.

A similar phenomenon occurs on Earth that creates the aurora borealis – also known as the northern lights – which can be seen in the northernmost countries during the colder months.

But Jupiter’s northern lights are much more powerful than Earth’s because they release hundreds of gigawatts of energy. This energy from Jupiter’s north and south poles is so powerful that it is sufficient to supply electricity briefly to everyone.

A research team led by University College London (UCL) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing has finally discovered how these northern lights formed after 40 years.

The scientists discovered that the X-rays are triggered by regular oscillations in Jupiter’s magnetic field lines that circle the planet in a vertical circle connecting from its north pole to its south pole.

These oscillations produce waves of plasma – ionized gas – that allow heavy ion particles to “surf” along magnetic field lines until they reach the planet’s atmosphere and release large amounts of energy in the form of X-rays.

Flashes of X-rays are generated every 27 minutes in observations made by scientists.

The charged ionic particles that collide with Jupiter’s atmosphere originate from volcanic gas flowing into space from the giant volcano on Io, one of Jupiter’s 79 moons.

This gas becomes ionized – its atoms lose electrons due to collisions around Jupiter – and forms a ring of plasma donuts around Jupiter, known as the plasma torus of Io.

dr. William Dunn of the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory said: “We’ve seen Jupiter producing X-ray aurorae for four decades, but we don’t know how that happens. We only know they are produced when ions hit the planet’s atmosphere.

“Now we know that these ions are transported by plasma waves – an explanation that has never been suggested before, although there is a similar process that creates Earth’s auroras.

“Therefore, this could be a universal phenomenon that is present in many different environments in outer space.”

The researchers combined close-up observations of Jupiter from NASA’s Juno satellite — which has been orbiting the largest planet in our solar system since 2016 — with simultaneous X-ray measurements from the European Space Agency’s XMM Newton Observatory, which orbits it.

This observation was carried out continuously for 26 hours.

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

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

“We can never visit black holes because they are beyond space travel, but Jupiter is at our doorstep. With the arrival of the Juno satellite in Jupiter’s orbit, astronomers now have a fantastic opportunity to get up close and personal with the X-ray-generating environment.”

The reason why Jupiter’s magnetic field lines vibrate regularly isn’t clear, but there is a theory that the vibrations could be caused by the solar wind or high-speed plasma currents in the planet’s magnetosphere – the area controlled by this magnetic field. Jupiter’s magnetosphere is about 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s.

dr. Zhonghua Yao said a similar process is likely around Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and “possibly exoplanets too.”

The new study is published in the journal Scientific progress.

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