NASA
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The Juno mission orbited Jupiter, providing key data for this study.
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Nationalgeographic.co.id – On November 8, 2020, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew through an intense electron beam moving from Ganymede, the largest moon Jupiter, to its auroral trail in the gas giant. Southwest Research Institute scientists used data from this Juno charge to study a population of particles moving along the magnetic field lines connecting Ganymede to Jupiter while, at the same time, sensing the emission. aurora linked remotely to uncover the mysterious process that creates the shimmering light.
“Jupiter’s most massive moons each create their own auroras at Jupiter’s north and south poles,” said Dr. Vincent Hue, lead author of a paper outlining the results of this study and publishing them in the journal Geophysical Research Letters pada 16 Februari 2022 dengan judul “A Comprehensive Set of Juno In Situ and Remote Sensing Observations of the Ganymede Auroral Footprint”.
“Each auroral trail, as we call it, is magnetically connected to its respective moon, like a magnetic string connected to Jupiter’s shining moon itself,” he said.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/UVS/STScI/MODIS/WIC/IMAGE/ULiège
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This illustration depicts the ultraviolet polar aurora on Jupiter and Earth. While the Jovian world is 10 times larger in diameter than Earth, the two planets have very similar auroras.
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Like Earth, Jupiter experiences auroral glow around its polar regions as particles from its massive magnetosphere interact with molecules in the Jovian atmosphere. However, Jupiter’s auroras are significantly more intense than Earth’s, and unlike Earth, Jupiter’s largest moon also creates auroral spots. Moons such as Galilee, or Jupiter’s four largest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, also create their auroras at Jupiter’s north and south poles. The Juno mission, led by Dr. Scott Bolton of SwRI, orbits Jupiter in a polar orbit and flies through the electron “thread” linking Ganymede with the associated auroral trail.
“Before Juno, we knew that these emissions could be very complex, ranging from a single auroral point to multiple points, sometimes following an auroral curtain we call the tail of the footprints,” said Dr. Juno. Jamey Szalay, co-author of Princeton University. “Juno, flying very close to Jupiter, revealed these auroral spots to be even more complex than previously thought.”
Ganymede is the only moon in our solar system that has its own magnetic field. Its mini-magnetosphere interacts with Jupiter’s massive magnetosphere, creating waves that accelerate electrons along the gas giant’s magnetic field lines, which Juno can measure directly.
NASA/SwRI/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill/ISA/INIA/Björn Jónsson/ULiège/Bertrand Bonfond/Vincent Hue
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NASA’s Juno spacecraft flies through an intense beam of electrons traveling from Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, to its auroral trail in the gas giant.
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Two instruments led by SwRI to Juno, namely: Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) and Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) provided key data for this study, which is also supported by the Juno magnetic field sensor built into NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
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“JADE measures electrons moving along magnetic field lines, while UVS images where the auroral footprints are associated,” said Dr. Thomas Greathouse of SwRI, co-author of the study, as reported Tech Explorist.
In this way, Juno can measure the “rain” of electrons and immediately observe the UV rays they produce when they hit Jupiter. Previous Juno measurements have shown that a large magnetic disturbance accompanies the electron beam causing the auroral trail. This time, however, Juno did not observe a similar disturbance with the electron beam.
“If our interpretation is correct, this is confirmation of a decade-old theory we put together to explain the morphology of auroral footprints,” said Dr. Bertrand Bonfond, co-author of the study from the University of Liège in Belgium. The theory suggests that electrons accelerated in both directions can create a multi-point dance of auroral footprints.
“The Jupiter-Ganymede relationship will be further explored by the Juno follow-up mission, as well as the European Space Agency’s upcoming JUICE mission,” Hue said. “SwRI is building the next generation of UVS instrumentation for the mission.” he concluded.
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