Astronomers are using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras – stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere – on the poles of the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter.
The auroras were photographed during a series of Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph far-ultraviolet-light observations taking place as NASA's Juno spacecraft approaches and enters into orbit around Jupiter. The aim of the program is to determine how Jupiter's auroras respond to changing conditions in the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted from the sun.
Auroras are formed when charged particles in the space surrounding the planet are accelerated to high energies along the planet's magnetic field. When the particles hit the atmosphere near the magnetic poles, they cause it to glow like gases in a fluorescent light fixture. Jupiter's magnetosphere is 20,000 times stronger than Earth's. These observations will reveal how the solar system's largest and most powerful magnetosphere behaves.
The full-color disk of Jupiter in this image was separately photographed at a different time by Hubble's Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, a long-term Hubble project that annually captures global maps of the outer planets.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester);Acknowledgment: A. Simon (NASA/GSFC) and the OPAL team
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Jupiter, Jupiter Aurora |
| Object Description | Planet |
| Distance | The semi-major axis of Jupiter's orbit about the sun is 5.2 astronomical units (483 million miles or 778 million kilometers). |
| Dimensions | The planet has a diameter of roughly 88,789 miles (142,984 kilometers) at the equator. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The data are from the following HST proposals: 2014 WFC3/UVIS Data: PI: A. Simon (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), G. Orton (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), J. Rogers (University of Cambridge, UK), and M. Wong and I. de Pater (University of California, Berkeley) 2016 STIS Data: PI: J. Nichols (University of Leicester), J. Clarke (Boston University), G. Orton (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), S. Cowley, E. Bunce, and T. Stallard (University of Leicester), S. Badman (Lancaster University), D. Grodent, B. Bonfond, and A. Radioti (Universite de Liege), R. Gladstone (Southwest Research Institute), F. Bagenal (University of Colorado, Boulder), J. Connerney (NASA/GSFC), D. McComas (Princeton University), B. Mauk (JHU/APL), W. Kurth (University of Iowa), I. Yoshikawa (University of Tokyo), M. Fujimoto (ISAS, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), C. Tao (NICT, Japan), and T. Kimura (ISAS, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS, HST>STIS/FUV-MAMA |
| Exposure Dates | April 21, 2014 (WFC3/UVIS), May 19, 2016 and June 2, 2016 (STIS) |
| Filters | WFC3/UVIS: F395N (395 nm), F502N (502 nm), and F631N (631 nm) STIS/FUV-MAMA F25SRF2 (145nm) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the STIS and WFC3/UVIS instruments. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: STIS CCD Blue: WFC3/UVIS F395N (395 nm) Green: WFC3/UVIS F502N (502 nm) Red: WFC3/UVIS F631N (631 nm) |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
