Explosions of Jupiter’s aurora

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Explosions of Jupiter’s aurora linked to extraordinary planet-moon interaction

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Earth, bursts of particles spewed by the Sun spark shimmering auroras, like the Northern Lights, that briefly dance at our planet’s poles. But, on Jupiter, there’s an auroral glow all the time, and new observations show that this Jovian display sometimes flares up because of a process having nothing to do with the Sun.

Jupiter watchers have long known that the giant planet’s ever-present polar auroras – thousands of times brighter and many times bigger than Earth – are powered by both electrically charged particles from the Sun colliding with Jupiter’s magnetic field and a separate interaction between Jupiter and one of its many moons, called Io. But there are also auroral explosions on Jupiter, or periods of dazzling brightening, similar to auroral storms on Earth, that no one could definitively trace back to either of those known causes.

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[Zalmoxis]

An article of interest, thank you for sharing.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Zalmoxis