Auroras
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World
New auroras discovered on Jupiter’s four largest moons
(ORDO NEWS) — Astronomers using the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea have found that auroras at visible wavelengths appear on all 4 of Jupiter’s major moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Using the HIRES spectrometer, as well as high-resolution spectrographs at the Large Binocular Telescope and Apache Point Observatory, a team led by Caltech and Boston University observed the moons in Jupiter’s shadow. Their faint auroras, caused by the…
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World
All of Jupiter’s largest moons have auroras that glow deep red and are 15 times brighter than our own.
(ORDO NEWS) — Jupiter is well known for its spectacular auroras, thanks in no small part to the Juno orbiter and recent images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). As on Earth, these dazzling phenomena result from the interaction of charged solar particles with Jupiter’s magnetic field and atmosphere. Over the years, astronomers have also detected faint auroras in the atmospheres of Jupiter’s largest moons (also known as…
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Rare pink auroras spotted in Earth’s atmosphere
(ORDO NEWS) — A group of tourists traveling through northern Norway spotted pink auroras in the sky. Their color indicates that streams of charged particles have penetrated unusually deep into the earth’s atmosphere. Rare auroras could be observed on Thursday November 3, 2022. Their pictures were taken by a group of tourists led by guide Markus Varik from the Norwegian company Greenlander. “These were the brightest pink lights I have…
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Scientists unravel the mystery of auroras on Jupiter
(ORDO NEWS) — American and European scientists have managed to link the processes occurring in the magnetic field of Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede with the auroras on Jupiter itself. An article about this was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. On November 8, 2020, NASA‘s Juno robotic interplanetary probe flew through an intense stream of electrons moving along lines of magnetic fields connecting Ganymede with auroral trails on Jupiter…
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Unusual auroras spotted on Saturn
(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that causes the formation of huge auroras the size of a planet on Saturn. This mechanism not only explains the huge auroras, but also strange periodicities in atmospheric processes. Saturn is unique among all known planets to date in that some of its auroras are generated by eddy winds in its own atmosphere, and not just by processes in the…
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High-altitude winds on Saturn cause unusual auroras
(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists have discovered a never-before-observed mechanism by which giant, planet-scale auroras are formed on Saturn. In this new study, Saturn is the only planet whose atmosphere generates auroras (the glow of the atmosphere near the planet’s poles) from powerful winds blowing in the atmosphere itself, and not from external sources located in the magnetosphere. On all other planets of the solar system, including the Earth, the airglow…
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News Headlines
How a Magnetic ‘Tug-of-War’ With Io’s Volcanic Eruptions Creates Jupiter’s Auroras
(ORDO NEWS) — Jupiter’s auroras – the lights that dance around its poles – are the most distinct in our solar system and over a thousand times brighter than Earth‘s aurora. Now, a new study confirms that these otherworldly polar lights come from a unique source: space lava. Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system. Its more than 400 active volcanoes regularly shoot lava…