Juno reveals the mysteries of Jupiter

The mysteries of the air giant, the planet that determines the balances in our entire planetary system, and therefore on Earth, reveal the latest data sent to NASA by Juno. For the first time, we have an image of the big storms of light and energy on Jupiter, which are larger than our planet.

Huge storms of light erupted at both poles of the giant planet and were observed by telescopes on the Earth's surface. However, their analysis by Juno gave new data and amazing images.

The results of this study were published March 16 in the journal AGU Advances. Before Juno, the scientists' view of the huge phenomenon was deficient.

"Observing Jupiter from Earth does not allow us to see beyond the extremity, on the dark side of the poles. "Studies from other spacecraft - Voyager, Galileo, Cassini - were done from relatively long distances and did not fly over the poles, so they could not see the full picture," said Bertrand Bonfond, a researcher at the University of Liege in Belgium and head author of the study.

"This is why Juno data is a real change in the level of knowledge we have, in order to better understand what is happening on the planet and how these storms are born," he added.

As the planet rotates, the storm rotates with it, and these intricate and bright features grow larger and brighter, emitting hundreds to thousands of gigawatts of ultraviolet light into space. The big jump in the level of brightness means that the storms of dawn throw at least 10 times more energy into the upper atmosphere of Jupiter than the typical aura.

"When we looked at the whole sequence of light storms, we could not help but notice that they look a lot like a type of aura on Earth", said Zhonghua Yao, one of the research researchers at the University of Liege.

These new findings will allow scientists to further study the differences and similarities that lead to the formation of the aura, providing more information for a better understanding of how these most beautiful planetary phenomena occur in worlds both inside and outside our solar system.

"The power of Jupiter is amazing. "The energy in these storms is another example of how powerful this giant planet is," said Scott Bolton, Juno lead researcher at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

"The storm revelations are another surprise from Juno's mission, which is constantly rewriting the book about how the giant planet works. "With the recent expansion of NASA's mission, we look forward to a lot of new information and discoveries."