Northern Lights on Jupiter: James Webb Telescope reveals impressive aurora

The sight of the Northern Lights has always amazed people. This natural phenomenon is not unique to Earth: Researchers have analyzed images from the James Webb Space Telescope showing massive auroras on the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter.

The northern lights on Jupiter pose a mystery to researchers.

Source: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb)

Due to its strong magnetic field, Jupiter attracts more charged particles than Earth when they are ejected into space during solar storms. In the atmosphere, these particles collide with atoms or gas molecules near the north or south poles of the gas planet. According to the US space agency NASA , the resulting auroras on Jupiter are a hundred times brighter and more energetic, as well as much larger, than those on Earth.

The aurora on Jupiter is not caused solely by solar particles. The glow is also partly due to volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io. Particles from these eruptions can leave Io's atmosphere and land in the planet's orbit, where they ultimately cause the aurora.

The James Webb Telescope has observed powerful auroras on Jupiter.

Source: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb)

The aurora images were taken in December 2023. "What a Christmas present! I was simply blown away!" recalls Jonathan Nichols of the University of Leicester in the UK, who led the research team. The images are not only beautiful to look at, they also raise new questions.

In parallel with the James Webb Telescope, the Hubble Telescope took images of Jupiter – albeit in the ultraviolet range. This revealed something extraordinary: "Curiously, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in the Hubble images," said Nichols. "To achieve the combination of brightness observed by Webb and Hubble, large amounts of very low-energy particles must be hitting the atmosphere, something previously thought impossible. We still don't understand how this happens."

The research team now plans to further investigate the discrepancy between the Hubble and Webb data. Data from the Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, will be used to help. This will allow the scientists to draw further conclusions about Jupiter's atmosphere and its immediate surroundings.