{"id":96031,"date":"2025-05-12T18:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T18:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/96031\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T18:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T18:49:08","slug":"nasas-webb-telescope-captures-mesmerizing-images-of-jupiters-auroras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/96031\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s Webb telescope captures mesmerizing images of Jupiter’s auroras"},"content":{"rendered":"

The James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>, NASA\u2019s successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, has captured new images<\/a> of the auroras at Jupiter\u2019s north pole. These massive auroras, caused by charged particles crashing into Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere, are hundreds of times brighter than our own Aurora Borealis, and, for the first time, we can now see them in greater detail thanks to these new images.<\/p>\n

Auroras on Earth are caused by solar storms, which occur when charged particles from the Sun collide with our upper atmosphere. This energizes the gases in the atmosphere, which gives them that distinctive colored glow that we know as the Northern (or Southern) Lights.<\/p>\n

Among the coolest things we\u2019ve gleaned from the telescope\u2019s observations is that particles from solar storms are not the only source for Jupiter\u2019s auroras. The giant planet\u2019s strong magnetic field is also pulling in charged particles from its surroundings, which includes particles thrown into the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions on Io, a moon orbiting Jupiter. Together, these varied sources lead to a more complex auroral system than the one on Earth.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

The high sensitivity of Webb\u2019s NIRCam<\/a> (Near-Infrared Camera) helps shed light (pun intended) on the rapidly changing features of Jupiter\u2019s auroras. Scientists were able to see details and bright spots that weren\u2019t visible with Hubble. Jonathan Nichols, who leads the team at the UK\u2019s University of Leicester that captured the images, shared his excitement over the discovery with NASA.<\/p>\n

In describing seeing the images, he said, “What a Christmas present it was \u2014 it just blew me away!” In describing what they learned from the images, he explained: “We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting them to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second.”<\/p>\n

The team was able to capture images of the auroras from the Hubble and Webb telescope simultaneously, which allowed them to directly compare data from both Ultraviolet and Near-Infrared images at once. It became evident with these comparisons that the Webb telescope was capturing details and nuance that the Hubble was completely missing. This is a testament to the power of the newer telescope and raised further questions about how the auroras function.<\/p>\n

Researchers hope these findings will help them further understand the inner workings of Jupiter\u2019s magnetic field, and even help provide insights into how the planet heats and cools. There is a lot to learn about the gas giant\u2019s atmosphere, and these images are just one step along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA\u2019s successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, has captured new images of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[7958,40867,17172,1162,874,12,70,413,44975,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-96031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-james-webb-space-telescope","9":"tag-james-webb-telescope","10":"tag-jupiter","11":"tag-jwst","12":"tag-nasa","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-space","16":"tag-tomorrow","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114496364810052801","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}