from the Io-Io-it's-off-to-work-we-go dept.
For the first time ever, NASA's Juno spacecraft has spotted electrons being fired down into Jupiter's atmosphere at up to 400,000 volts. That's an enormous amount of energy that gives rise to the planet's glowing auroras. These incredibly high voltages, however, are only spotted occasionally — and that's raising questions about what exactly is behind some of the planet's most vivid glows at the poles.
The discovery, detailed in a study published today in Nature, was made possible by the instruments on board Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter for a little over a year, passing by the poles closer than any other spacecraft has before. It confirms, in part, what astronomers expected, but it also shows that Jupiter's auroras behave differently than auroras on Earth — through processes that we don't fully understand yet.
Auroras, on both Earth and Jupiter, are formed when charged particles like electrons spiral down a planet's magnetic field lines, entering the atmosphere and creating a glow. On Earth, the most intense auroras are caused by solar storms, which occur when high-energy particles ejected from the Sun rain down on our planet. When these particles enter the atmosphere, they interact with gases and make the sky glow red, green, and blue at the poles. On Jupiter, auroras are formed by particles ejected mostly from the Io, the planet's moon. Io's volcanoes spew huge amounts of sulfur and oxygen into space, loading Jupiter's magnetic field with particles.
[...] "We've never flown right over the poles of Jupiter before," says Jonathan Nichols, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester, who did not take part in the study. "So Juno is telling us about those particles for the first time."
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/6/16256926/nasa-juno-jupiter-auroras-electrons
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NASA has extended the Juno mission for 3 more years. It was previously scheduled to deorbit and collide with Jupiter in July 2018. JunoCam is expected to fail before the end of the mission due to radiation damage:
NASA has officially announced that its $1 billion Juno mission is getting a critical life extension to study planet Jupiter. Instead of being crashed into the planet's cloud tops next month, Juno will fly until at least July 2021, according to a press release issued on Thursday by the Southwest Research Institute, which operates the pinwheel-shaped, tennis-court-size robot.
Business Insider reported on Monday that Juno's mission would be extended. The probe has orbited Jupiter since July 2015, but engine trouble forced scientists to collect data about four times more slowly than they'd originally hoped. "Juno needs more time to gather our planned scientific measurements," Scott Bolton, the Juno mission's leader and a planetary scientist at the SwRI, told Gizmodo on Tuesday.
See also: The Mystery of Insane Lightning Storms on Jupiter Has Finally Been Solved
Prevalent lightning sferics at 600 megahertz near Jupiter's poles (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0156-5) (DX)
Discovery of rapid whistlers close to Jupiter implying lightning rates similar to those on Earth (DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0442-z) (DX)
Related: JunoCam Works, First New Images From Jupiter Sent Back
Juno Captures Best Ever Images of Jupiter's Great Red Spot
Jupiter's Auroras Powered by Particles from Io
Depth of Jupiter's Great Red Spot Studied, and Two New Radiation Zones Found
Great Storms of Jupiter and Neptune Are Disappearing
Volcanic Plume on Jupiter's Moon Io Spied by Juno Spacecraft
NASA's Juno spacecraft has captured an intriguing image of a volcanic plume straddling the line between day and night on Jupiter's notoriously eruptive moon Io.
The image is part of a larger data set gathered on the spacecraft's Dec. 21 close skim over the planet's surface, when four of Juno's cameras spent more than an hour watching the volcanic moon's pole. All told, the observations are a nice scientific bonus for the Juno team, because the spacecraft's primary job is to study Jupiter itself.
"We knew we were breaking new ground with a multispectral campaign to view Io's polar region, but no one expected we would get so lucky as to see an active volcanic plume shooting material off the moon's surface," Scott Bolton, principal investigator of the Juno mission, said in a statement released by the Southwest Research Institute, which contributed two instruments to the mission. "This is quite a New Year's present, showing us that Juno has the ability to clearly see plumes."
Previously: Jupiter's Auroras Powered by Particles from Io
NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter Extended for 3 Years
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @03:41PM
Far out! Dіck Niggers.
That's right we never fuck no old pussy.
But you know we fuck a whole lotta young pussy.
You gonna have a powful aurora when Dіck Niggers stick this nigger dіck up yo cunt and shoot out black hot nigger particles.
(Score: 2) by Snospar on Friday September 08 2017, @07:11PM
ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday September 08 2017, @07:28PM (1 child)
Not unless it's multiplied by some number of Amperes. Until then, it's just some number of volts at unspecified amperage; it could well be just a zap like that from a Tesla coil [realclearscience.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @11:32AM
> Not unless it's multiplied by some number of Amperes.
Not unless it's also multiplied by some duration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @07:58PM
hmmm [userfriendly.org]