{"id":10534,"date":"2025-08-20T01:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10534\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T01:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:14:10","slug":"juno-detects-unusual-plasma-waves-in-jupiters-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10534\/","title":{"rendered":"Juno Detects Unusual Plasma Waves in Jupiter\u2019s Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Using data from NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft, planetary researchers have detected a new type of plasma wave in the auroral zones above Jupiter\u2019s north pole.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39136\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39136\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image_3989-Jupiter-Aurora.jpg\" alt=\"This image combines an image taken with the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the optical and observations of the Jovian aurora in the ultraviolet. Image credit: NASA \/ ESA.\" width=\"580\" height=\"566\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-39136\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This image combines an image taken with the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the optical and observations of the Jovian aurora in the ultraviolet. Image credit: NASA \/ ESA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has given us some infrared images of the aurora, but Juno is the first spacecraft in a polar orbit around Jupiter,\u201d said Dr. Ali Sulaiman, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe space around magnetized planets like Jupiter is filled with plasma, a superheated state of matter where atoms break into electrons and ions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese particles are accelerated toward the planet\u2019s atmosphere, causing the gases to light up as an aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Earth, this is visible as familiar green and blue lights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, Jupiter\u2019s aurora is typically invisible to the naked eye and can only be observed using UV and infrared instruments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team\u2019s analysis revealed that due to the extremely low density of Jupiter\u2019s polar plasma combined with its powerful magnetic field, the plasma waves have a very low frequency, unlike anything previously observed around Earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile plasma can behave like a fluid, it is also influenced by its own magnetic fields and external fields,\u201d said University of Minnesota\u2019s Professor Robert Lysak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur study also sheds light on how Jupiter\u2019s complex magnetic field allows particles to flood into the polar cap, unlike Earth where the aurora forms a donut pattern of auroral activity around the polar cap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope to gather more data as Juno continues its mission to support further research into this new phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.aps.org\/prl\/abstract\/10.1103\/fn63-qmb7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">results<\/a> were published July 16, 2025 in the journal Physical Review Letters.<\/p>\n<p>_____<\/p>\n<p>R.L. Lysak et al. 2025. New Plasma Regime in Jupiter\u2019s Auroral Zones. Phys. Rev. Lett 135, 035201; doi: 10.1103\/fn63-qmb7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Using data from NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft, planetary researchers have detected a new type of plasma wave in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[1204,10210,9124,18,10211,19,17,10212,2663,1024,91,10213,133,10214],"class_list":{"0":"post-10534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-planet","9":"tag-atmosphere","10":"tag-aurora","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-gas-giant","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-juno","16":"tag-jupiter","17":"tag-nasa","18":"tag-plasma","19":"tag-plasma-wave","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-solar-system"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}