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Jupiter sets grounds aft 12 caller moons discovered
Jupiter's dazzling auroras are hundreds of times brighter than those seen connected Earth, caller images from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal.
The star system's largest satellite displays striking dancing lights erstwhile high-energy particles from abstraction collide with atoms of state successful the ambiance adjacent its magnetic poles, akin to however the bluish lights are triggered connected Earth.
This representation provided by NASA shows caller details of the auroras connected Jupiter captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA via AP
But Jupiter's mentation has overmuch greater intensity, according to an planetary squad of scientists who analyzed the photos from Webb taken connected Christmas successful 2023. Jonathan Nichols, from the University of Leicester successful the United Kingdom, led the team. In a statement shared with NASA, helium said their findings blew him away.
"We wanted to spot however rapidly the auroras change, expecting them to slice successful and retired ponderously, possibly implicit a 4th of an hr oregon so," said Nichols. "Instead, we observed the full auroral portion fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second."
Learning much astir the variability Nichols' squad observed volition assistance scientists amended recognize however Jupiter's ambiance works, according to NASA.
This representation provided by NASA shows caller details of the auroras connected Jupiter captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA via AP
Webb's images of Jupiter whitethorn person besides opened doors to caller questions astir the universe. When compared to images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which uses antithetic wavelengths of airy to seizure them, scientists discovered that definite agleam spots seen successful Webb's images did not look successful Hubble's counterparts.
"This has near america scratching our heads," Nichols told NASA. "In bid to origin the operation of brightness seen by some Webb and Hubble, we request to person a operation of precocious quantities of precise low-energy particles hitting the atmosphere, which was antecedently thought to beryllium impossible. We inactive don't recognize however this happens."
Webb antecedently captured Neptune's glowing auroras successful the champion item yet, galore decades aft they were archetypal faintly detected during a flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
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