The auroras near Jupiter are seeming more complicated to scientists these days than anything else in the Solar System.
At Jupiter, the brightest auroras are caused by some kind of turbulent acceleration process that we do not understand very well as reported by a researcher.
The Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument (JEDI) recorded energy signatures above the gas giant's north pole as Juno whizzed by at more than 100,000 mph.
At that speed, the device had only seconds to make its measurements, but doing so gave us our first chance to directly observe the processes behind Jupiter's auroral emissions – and it turns out they're very different to the ones on Earth.
When these charged particles collide with gases in Earth's upper atmosphere, the gas molecules end up releasing photons, which produce brilliant, swirling light shows in the sky above polar regions.
Juno's flyby revealed that electrons in the Jovian atmosphere are accelerated towards Jupiter at energies up to 400,000 electron volts – which is up to 30 times higher than the largest auroral potentials observed on Earth.
In other words, the light shows above Jupiter's poles should be beyond stupendous – and they are – but strangely, not because of the way the phenomenon plays out on Earth.
On Jupiter, lights in the sky, like most things, are very different.
As the electric potentials in the magnetic field build towards an energetic crescendo, they become unstable, breaking into waves of random turbulence.
These waves could end up propelling electrons themselves.
For now, it's just a working hypothesis, as the team don't fully understand what's going on here.
But this wave-based motion is the best explanation we have, in a case that highlights just how inaccurate our scientific assumptions can sometimes be, especially when trying to predict processes taking place far beyond our own planet.
But when we can reach out closer to what's happening out there in space, it can throw us some truly amazing surprises from time to time.
However this still haunts Space Scientists to search an ultimate explanation.
Image Credit: Bertrand Bonfond
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