Solve the mystery of Jupiter’s strange pulsating X-ray auroras

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Jupiter is an amazing planet in many ways, with its beautiful clusters of clouds, the largest storm in the solar system, and unusual phenomena such as geometric storms at its poles. And it has some additional anomalies that we’re still learning about, like the fact that it has strange x-rays a bit like the northern lights here on Earth.

For 40 years, scientists have wondered how the X-ray aurora works, and now a new study is revealing the mechanism behind them. Like the aurora borealis on Earth, Jupiter’s aurora borealis are caused by electrically charged particles interacting with the planet’s atmosphere. On our planet, these interactions make beautiful colors in the sky when they interact with Earth’s magnetic field lines, which appear as auroras near the magnetic poles. But on Jupiter, the aurora borealis appear in different regions and differ between the north and south poles. Sometimes they pulsate, indicating that they are due to a different type of magnetic field.

Artist’s impression of the upcoming Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission in orbit around Jupiter. Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Jupiter: NASA/ESA/J. Nichols (University of Leicester); Ganymede: NASA/JPL; Io: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; Callisto and Europa: NASA / JPL / DLR

Using computer modeling, the researchers were able to show that while the aurora borealis are generated along the so-called open field lines, which start from Earth and reach into space, Jupiter’s aurora borealis are linked to closed field lines, which start inside the planet and extend thereafter. For thousands of miles before it ends up in the planet again

They also found that the pulsations in the aurora were due to fluctuations in the planet’s magnetic field, due to the planet’s rotation. Electrically charged particles “surf” along the field lines and eventually hit Jupiter’s atmosphere, causing the aurora borealis effect.

The phenomenon was observed using data from the Juno probe, which took continuous readings with its XMM-Newton X-ray instrument for 26 hours in 2017. The researchers were able to see a relationship between the planet’s magnetic processes and the production of X-boreal auroras.

And this may not only happen on Jupiter. A similar process could occur elsewhere in our solar system, or even beyond.

“This is a fundamental process that applies to Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and possibly the outer planets as well,” said lead author Zhonghua Yao of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

The research was published in the journal Science Advances.

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