Researchers from the University College London believe that they¡¯ve solved a 40-year-old mystery of our solar system¡¯s massive planet and its X-ray bursts.
Also Read:?NASA's Juno Spacecraft Has Detected FM Radio Signals From Jupiter's Largest Moon
Jupiter -- the largest planet in our solar system, is popular for numerous reasons -- its massive gravitational pull, its moons and its gargantuan persona. However, for 40 years, scientists have also been taking a keen interest due to Jupiter as every few minutes it produces crazy amounts of X-rays.
Researchers have been clueless about why such X-rays are produced like clockwork, and now, researchers from the University College London believe that they¡¯ve got the answer.?
These X-rays are visible as Jupiter¡¯s aurora similar to what Earth¡¯s northern regions experience -- a phenomenon known as aurora borealis or northern lights. And even on Jupiter, it occurs when charged particles interact with Jupiter¡¯s atmosphere.
However, much like the size of the planet, its auroras too are much more powerful, releasing hundreds of gigawatts of energy. To put things into perspective, a power station on Earth produces one gigawatt in a few days or so.?
In the study, researchers observed the big glass giant through NASA¡¯s Juno satellite along with X-ray measurements within the European Space Agency¡¯s XMM-Newton observatory. The researchers also discovered X-ray flares were triggered by periodic vibrations of Jupiter¡¯s magnetic field lines.
Also Read:?Jupiter And Saturn Will Appear Together In December, First Time In 800 Years
These vibrations resulted in the creation of plasma that sent heavy particles along the magnetic lines until they collided with the planet¡¯s atmosphere, releasing X-rays. This was observed at Jupiter¡¯s north and south poles with a new blast being sent every 27 minutes from the planet¡¯s moon into the universe.?
Also Read:?Jupiter Looks Like Pepperoni Pizza In This NASA Pic And We're Drooling
Dr William Dunn, from UCL¡¯s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, explains, ¡°We have seen Jupiter producing X-ray aurora for four decades, but we didn¡¯t know how this happened. We only knew they were produced when ions crashed into the planet¡¯s atmosphere. Now we know these ions are transported by plasma waves ¨C an explanation that has not been proposed before, even though a similar process produces Earth¡¯s own aurora. It could, therefore, be a universal phenomenon, present across many different environments in space.¡±
With the identification of the process, co-lead author, Zhonghua Yao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing says that it;s possible that something similar could be happening on other planets of our solar system too.