Latest news with #JonathanNichols
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Science
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James Webb telescope reveals 'impossible' auroras on Jupiter that have astronomers scratching their heads
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On Christmas Day in 2023, scientists trained the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on Jupiter's auroras and captured a dazzling light show. The researchers observed rapidly-changing features in Jupiter's vast auroras using JWST's infrared cameras. The findings could help explain how Jupiter's atmosphere is heated and cooled, according to a study published May 12 in Nature Communications. "What a Christmas present it was — it just blew me away!" study coauthor Jonathan Nichols, a researcher studying auroras at the University of Leicester in the UK, said in a statement. "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." Auroras form when high-energy charged particles, often released from the sun, slam into gases in a planet's atmosphere, causing the gas to glow. Jupiter's strong magnetic field scoops up charged particles such as electrons from the solar wind — and from eruptions on its highly volcanic moon Io — and sends them hurtling toward the planet's poles, where they put on a spectacle hundreds of times brighter than Earth's Northern Lights. Related: NASA reveals 'glass-smooth lake of cooling lava' on surface of Jupiter's moon Io In the new study, the team looked closely at infrared light emitted by the trihydrogen cation, H3+. This molecule forms in Jupiter's auroras when energetic electrons meet hydrogen in the planet's atmosphere. Its infrared emission sends heat out of Jupiter's atmosphere, but the molecule can also be destroyed by fast-moving electrons. To date, no ground-based telescopes have been sensitive enough to determine exactly how long H3+ sticks around. But by using JWST's Near Infrared Camera, the team observed H3+ emissions that varied more than they expected. They found that H3+ lasts about two and a half minutes in Jupiter's atmosphere before being destroyed. That could help scientists tease out how much of an effect H3+ has on cooling Jupiter's atmosphere. RELATED STORIES —Mystery of Jupiter's powerful X-ray auroras finally solved —Powerful solar winds squish Jupiter's magnetic field 'like a giant squash ball' —Jupiter glows in stunning new James Webb telescope images But the scientists don't have the full picture yet. They also found some puzzling data when they turned the Hubble Space Telescope toward Jupiter at the same time. Hubble captured the ultraviolet light coming from the auroras, while JWST captured infrared light. "Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble's pictures," Nichols said in the statement. "This has left us scratching our heads. In order to cause the combination of brightness seen by both Webb and Hubble, we need to have a combination of high quantities of very low-energy particles hitting the atmosphere, which was previously thought to be impossible. We still don't understand how this happens." In future work, the researchers plan to study the source of this unexpected pattern using additional JWST data as well as observations from NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been observing Jupiter from orbit since 2016.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Webb captures Jupiter's surprisingly active Northern Lights
A fresh look at Jupiter's powerful auroras with the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed never-before-seen details, and has uncovered a strange mystery for researchers to solve. On Christmas Day in 2023, a team of astronomers aimed the sensitive Webb Telescope at the largest planet in our solar system. Although this had been done before, they had a very specific target in mind — the intense auroras that surround the immense planet's magnetic north pole. While these Jovian Northern Lights had been imaged in the past, using the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb provided them with an unprecedented view, capturing the details of this phenomenon like never before. Jupiter's auroras (left) captured by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on Dec. 25, 2023. The image on the right shows the planet Jupiter to indicate the location of the observed auroras, which was originally published in 2023. (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)) "What a Christmas present it was — it just blew me away!" Jonathan Nichols, the lead researcher of this study from the University of Leicester, said in a NASA press release. Auroras on Earth — the Northern Lights and Southern Lights — occur as high-energy particles from the Sun stream past the planet, either flowing on the solar wind or from massive eruptions of solar matter, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), sweeping by us. These particles are captured by our planet's geomagnetic field and funnelled down into the upper atmospehre. There, they collide with atoms and molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in the air, passing on their energy. The energized oxygen and nitrogen then release that energy as coloured flashes of light — greens and reds from oxygen, and mostly blue from nitrogen. The Northern Lights, spotted near Guelph, ON, on September 16, 2024. (Stormhunter Mark Robinson) This same process occurs on Jupiter, but with an additional source of high energy charged particles. While the planet's intense magnetic field captures particles from the solar wind and CMEs, it also picks up ionized particles from the innermost of its four largest moons. Io is the most volcanically active object in the solar system. Hundreds of volcanoes dot its surface, which are powered by the tidal stretching and squeezing induced by the gravitational 'tug-of-war' the moon endures as it orbits the planet and periodically passes by its neighbours, Europa and Ganymede. Io, imaged by NASA's Juno spacecraft during its 57th pass around Jupiter. The combinations of blemished and smooth terrain on the surface is due to nearly constant volcanic activity. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill) Jupiter's magnetic field acts like a particle accelerator, driving this combination of solar and volcanic ions down into the planet's upper atmosphere so they hit the atoms and molecules there at tremendous speeds. As a result, Jupiter's auroras glow extremely brightly. Since the process of producing auroras also generates heat, aka infrared light, Jovian auroras show up very brightly to Webb, which is specifically designed to capture that part of the spectrum of light. This allowed the researchers to get a very detailed view of the auroras, and spot how they changed with time. What they saw over the course of their observations surprised them. "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," Nichols explained. "Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second." Three different views of Jupiter's auroras are shown here from Dec. 25, 2023, superimposed on an earlier JWST image of the planet. (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)) Jupiter's auroras also produce a rare type of hydrogen known as the trihydrogen cation. Normal hydrogen gas is composed of two hydrogen atoms, thus there are two protons in the nucleus, which are surrounded by two electrons. In a trihydrogen cation, there are three protons surrounded by two electrons, which causes it to be positively charged. It was this very specific molecule that Nichols and his team were able to focus Webb onto, to gather the data for their study. According to NASA, detecting the emissions from these trihydrogen cations will help scientists understand how the upper atmosphere of Jupiter heats and cools. There was one odd thing that Nichols' team noticed in their observations. Auroras show up in various colours across the spectrum of visible light, such as green, red, and blue. However, when we use telescopes to see auroras on Jupiter, we only see them in infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths. In this case, JWST handled the infrared observations, while another telescope provided the ultraviolet view. "What made these observations even more special is that we also took pictures simultaneously in the ultraviolet with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope," Nichols explained. Comparing the images from opposite ends of the spectrum is where a mystery popped up. The assumption was that the brightest regions in both UV and IR light should match up. However, they didn't. "Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble's pictures," Nichols said. "This has left us scratching our heads. In order to cause the combination of brightness seen by both Webb and Hubble, we need to have a combination of high quantities of very low-energy particles hitting the atmosphere, which was previously thought to be impossible. We still don't understand how this happens." The difference might be due to the abundance of particles from the Sun versus the abundance of volcanic particles from Io. Or, there may be something else going on here that they haven't accounted for. According to NASA, the research team plans on delving deeper into their comparison between the Webb and Hubble data they collected. They also plan on making further observations with Webb, which can be compared with data from the Juno spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter. Click here to view the video
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Video: Erupting volcanoes cause ‘dancing' light show in space
Beautiful 'dancing' lights were recently found on Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. The lights are similar to the auroras seen on Earth but are 'hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth,' according to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. New information about the fifth planet's aurora was published in the academic journal Nature Communications on Monday, based on photographs taken by the space telescope on Dec. 25, 2023. 'What a Christmas present it was — it just blew me away!' astronomer Jonathan Nichols, from the University of Leicester in England, said in a statement. '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.' Earth's aurora is caused by high-energy particles from the sun that enter the atmosphere and collide with atoms, while Jupiter's massive aurora includes an additional source. The planet's strong magnetic field grabs the particles from its surroundings, including from one of its moons, Io, astronomers said. The moon's volcanic surface erupts with particles that enter Jupiter's orbit. The magnetic field causes these particles to move at tremendous speeds, resulting in the glow of the aurora. Nichols' team also found that the brightest lights observed by the Webb Space Telescope were not spotted in pictures taken at the same time by a different telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, leaving the team 'scratching our heads,' Nichols said in the statement. The team will study this discrepancy between the two telescopes and further explore Jupiter's atmosphere and space environment. This information will then be compared with data collected from NASA's Juno spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter since 2016, 'to better explore the cause of the enigmatic bright emission,' the team said. Massive solar flare erupts, causing radio blackouts across Earth Where will failed '70s Soviet probe land after it crashes back to Earth? Nobody knows Sorry, Pluto: The solar system could have a 9th planet after all, astronomers say Failed '70s-era Soviet spacecraft bound for Venus could soon crash back to Earth This 'Star Wars' Day, check out a moon that looks like iconic space station Read the original article on MassLive.
Business Mayor
15-05-2025
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- Business Mayor
James Webb telescope reveals 'impossible' auroras on Jupiter that have astronomers scratching their heads
On Christmas Day in 2023, scientists trained the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on Jupiter's auroras and captured a dazzling light show. The researchers observed rapidly-changing features in Jupiter's vast auroras using JWST's infrared cameras. The findings could help explain how Jupiter's atmosphere is heated and cooled, according to a study published May 12 in Nature Communications . 'What a Christmas present it was — it just blew me away!' study coauthor Jonathan Nichols , a researcher studying auroras at the University of Leicester in the UK, said in a statement . '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.' You may like Auroras form when high-energy charged particles, often released from the sun, slam into gases in a planet's atmosphere, causing the gas to glow. Jupiter's strong magnetic field scoops up charged particles such as electrons from the solar wind — and from eruptions on its highly volcanic moon Io — and sends them hurtling toward the planet's poles, where they put on a spectacle hundreds of times brighter than Earth's Northern Lights . Related: NASA reveals 'glass-smooth lake of cooling lava' on surface of Jupiter's moon Io In the new study, the team looked closely at infrared light emitted by the trihydrogen cation, H 3 +. This molecule forms in Jupiter's auroras when energetic electrons meet hydrogen in the planet's atmosphere. Its infrared emission sends heat out of Jupiter's atmosphere, but the molecule can also be destroyed by fast-moving electrons. To date, no ground-based telescopes have been sensitive enough to determine exactly how long H 3 + sticks around. But by using JWST's Near Infrared Camera, the team observed H 3 + emissions that varied more than they expected. They found that H 3 + lasts about two and a half minutes in Jupiter's atmosphere before being destroyed. That could help scientists tease out how much of an effect H 3 + has on cooling Jupiter's atmosphere. Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. But the scientists don't have the full picture yet. They also found some puzzling data when they turned the Hubble Space Telescope toward Jupiter at the same time. Hubble captured the ultraviolet light coming from the auroras, while JWST captured infrared light. 'Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble's pictures,' Nichols said in the statement. 'This has left us scratching our heads. In order to cause the combination of brightness seen by both Webb and Hubble, we need to have a combination of high quantities of very low-energy particles hitting the atmosphere, which was previously thought to be impossible. We still don't understand how this happens.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Beyond Earth: Exploring auroras across the solar system
Seeing the Aurora Borealis dance in the night sky is a bucket list item for countless people, but the enchanting phenomenon is not exclusive to Earth. Decades of research and the use of advanced telescopes have helped scientists observe the cosmic lights on other planets, which has helped us learn more about Earth's celestial neighbors. Mars A planet-wide display of the aurora brightened the Martian sky during a geomagnetic storm in September 2017. The event was captured by an ultraviolet sensor on NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, which orbits the planet. "Unlike auroras on Earth, the Martian aurora is not concentrated at the planet's polar regions. This is because Mars has no strong magnetic field like Earth's to concentrate the aurora near the poles," NASA explained. Jupiter Celestial lights have been spotted around the north and south poles of Jupiter on several occasions, but the powerful James Webb Space Telescope captured the phenomenon in stunning detail on Dec. 25, 2023. The aurora is hundreds of times brighter than those on Earth, in part due to Jupiter's massive magnetic field. The speed at which the aurora moved was particularly fascinating and surprising to scientists. "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," said Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. "It just blew me away!" Saturn Since its launch in the 1990s, the Hubble Space Telescope has helped astronomers make countless discoveries about the cosmos, ranging from mysterious objects millions of light years away to worlds closer to home. In 2004, Hubble spotted a ring of aurora in the sky above Saturn, which defied scientists' expectations. According to NASA, the aurora on Earth may last only a few minutes, but on Saturn, it can last for days. Uranus In the 2010s, aurora on Uranus helped scientists make discoveries about the planet, which is more than 1.6 billion miles away from Earth. "By watching the auroras over time, they collected the first direct evidence that these powerful shimmering regions rotate with the planet," NASA explained. "They also re-discovered Uranus' long-lost magnetic poles, which were lost shortly after their discovery by Voyager 2 in 1986 due to uncertainties in measurements and the featureless planet surface." Neptune Scientists had long suspected auroras occasionally glowed on Neptune, but the phenomenon was not confirmed until 2023 when the James Webb Space Telescope focused on the planet. "Turns out, actually imaging the auroral activity on Neptune was only possible with Webb's near-infrared sensitivity," said Henrik Melin, lead author of a study focused on the planet.
