Do go watch the 4K video explainer below -- but here's a teasing bit:
. . . “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.”
In particular, the team studied emission from the trihydrogen cation (H3+), which can be created in auroras. They found that this emission is far more variable than previously believed. The observations will help develop scientists’ understanding of how Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is heated and cooled.
The team also uncovered some unexplained observations in their data.
“What made these observations even more special is that we also took pictures simultaneously in the ultraviolet with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope,” added Nichols. “Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by [JWST] had no real counterpart in Hubble’s pictures.
This has left us scratching our heads. In order to cause the combination of brightness seen by both [JWST] 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. . . .”
Onward -- now you know. . . there are still vast mysteries out there -- in the cold black night of space. . . even in our own neighborhood. That's just. . . awesome -- maybe your own kiddos will be the ones to figure out these gas giant / planetary science mysteries, in the decades that lie ahead. Smile.
नमस्ते
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