Tag Archive for 'Aurora'

Juno capturing the marks on Jupiter of all four Galilean moons; the aurorae related to each are labeled Io, Eur (for Europa), Gan (for Ganymede), and Cal (for Callisto). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / UVS Team / MSSS / Gill / Jónsson / Perry / Hue / Rabia.

Juno Observes Ultraviolet Satellite Footprint of Jupiter’s Moon Callisto

Sep 4, 2025 by News Staff

Jupiter hosts the brightest and most spectacular aurorae in the Solar System. Near its poles, these shimmering lights offer a glimpse into how the planet...

This image combines an image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the optical and observations of the Jovian aurora in the ultraviolet. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Juno Detects Unusual Plasma Waves in Jupiter’s Aurora

Aug 19, 2025 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary researchers have detected a new type of plasma wave in the auroral zones above Jupiter’s north pole. This...

The first visible-light image of green aurora on Mars (left), taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA’s Perseverance rover. On the right is a comparison image of the night sky of Mars without aurora but featuring the Martian moon Deimos. The moonlit Martian night sky, lit up mostly by Mars’ nearer and larger moon Phobos (outside the frame) has a reddish-brown hue due to the dust in the atmosphere, so when green auroral light is added, the sky takes on a green-yellow tone, as seen in the left image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS / SSI.

Perseverance Detects Visible-Wavelength Aurora on Mars

May 19, 2025 by News Staff

Mars hosts various auroral processes despite the planet’s tenuous atmosphere and lack of a global magnetic field. To date, all aurora observations have...

These observations of Jupiter’s aurorae were captured with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) on December 25, 2023. Image credit: 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 / J. Nichols, University of Leicester / M. Zamani, ESA & Webb.

Webb Observes Dynamic Infrared Aurorae on Jupiter

May 13, 2025 by News Staff

The Jovian aurorae are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth, says a team of astronomers by University of Leicester’s Dr. Jonathan Nichols. These...

This image of Uranus’ aurorae was taken by Hubble on October 10, 2022. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Lamy / L. Sromovsky.

Astronomers Measure Rotation Rate of Uranus with Unprecedented Precision

Apr 10, 2025 by News Staff

The rotation period of Uranus was estimated to be 17.24 hours in 1986 from radio auroral measurements made by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. Using the...

This composite image, made using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, shows auroral activity (cyan splotches) on Neptune. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Heidi Hammel, AURA / Henrik Melin, Northumbria University / Leigh Fletcher, University of Leicester / Stefanie Milam, NASA-GSFC.

Webb Detects Trihydrogen, Captures Aurorae on Neptune for First Time

Mar 26, 2025 by News Staff

Emissions from the upper-atmospheric trihydrogen cation (H3+) have been used to study the global-scale interactions of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus with...

Keogram of (a) all-sky camera and (b) HySCAI, and (c) time evolution of space-averaged spectrum of aurora emission measured by HySCAI on October 20-21, 2023. Image credit: Yoshinuma et al., doi: 10.1186/s40623-024-02039-y.

Researchers Capture First Two-Dimensional Spectral Images of Aurorae

Aug 16, 2024 by News Staff

Two-dimensional (2D) aurora images with full spectrum have been captured by scientists in Japan using the newly-developed hyperspectral camera for auroral...

An artist’s impression of the brown dwarf W1935. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / L. Hustak, STScI.

Webb Detects Methane Emission from Cool Brown Dwarf

Apr 17, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected methane emission from CWISEP J193518.59-154620.3 (W1935 for short), an isolated...

Yu et al. discovered radio bursts above a sunspot that resemble radio emissions from aurorae on Earth. The pink-purple streaks in this illustration represent the radio emissions, with higher-frequency radio signals in pink, closer to the sunspot, and lower frequencies in purple. The thin lines represent magnetic field lines above the sunspot. The sunspot is the dark region on the Sun at the bottom. Image credit: Sijie Yu, New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Solar Astronomers Detect Aurora-Like Radio Emission above Sunspot

Mar 21, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array have observed long-lasting aurora-like radio bursts above a sunspot. This discovery could help us...

Webb Detects Auroral Signature in Extremely Cold Brown Dwarf

Jan 9, 2024 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have detected a brown dwarf with infrared emission from methane, likely due to energy in...

An artistic representation of how Uranus’ northern infrared aurora (marked in red) would have looked like in 2006. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Showalter, SETI Institute / Hubble Space Telescope.

Infrared Aurora Detected on Uranus

Oct 27, 2023 by News Staff

While the ultraviolet aurora of Uranus has been observed since 1986, no confirmation of the infrared aurora had been observed until now. An artistic representation...

An artist’s representation of BepiColombo flying through precipitating electrons that can trigger X-ray auroras on the surface of Mercury. Image credit: Thibaut Roger / Europlanet.

Auroral Mechanisms May Be Universal throughout Our Solar System

Jul 18, 2023 by News Staff

An analysis of data obtained during the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft’s first Mercury flyby reveals that Mercury’s southern magnetosphere aurorae...

A panning-view of Jupiter’s upper atmospheric temperatures, 1,000 km (621 miles) above the cloud tops; the auroral region (near the northern pole, in yellow/white) appears to have shed a massive, planetary-scale wave of heating towards the equator. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Simon / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / J. Schmidt / O’Donoghue et al., doi: 10.5194/epsc2022-373.

Huge Heat Wave Spotted in Upper Atmosphere of Jupiter

Sep 23, 2022 by News Staff

The high-temperature planetary-scale-sized structure is at least 130,000 km (80,778 miles) long, according to a new study led by JAXA scientists. A panning-view...

Patchy proton aurora on Mars. Image credit: EMM / EMUS / UAE Space Agency.

MAVEN and EMM Orbiters Observe ‘Patchy’ Proton Aurora on Mars

Aug 31, 2022 by News Staff

Even though Mars does not have a global magnetic field like the Earth, it still possesses multiple kinds of aurora. One of these is proton aurora, which...

This NIRCam/Webb image from two filters -- F212N (orange) and F335M (cyan)-- shows the Jupiter system. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Jupiter ERS Team / Ricardo Hueso, UPV & EHU / Judy Schmidt.

Webb Team Releases New Photos of Jupiter

Aug 23, 2022 by News Staff

The two new images of Jupiter were taken with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details...

A fragment of the Bamboo Annals. Image credit: National Diet Library of Japan.

Earliest Known Report of Aurora Found in Ancient Chinese Chronicle

Apr 12, 2022 by News Staff

The Bamboo Annals (Zhúshū Jìnián) is a historical chronicle of the history of ancient China, spanning ca. 2400 to 299 BCE. A fragment of the Bamboo...

This infrared image, taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, shows an aurora at the southern pole of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / Cassini / VIMS Team / University of Arizona / University of Leicester / JPL / ASI.

Weather Drives Saturn’s Powerful Aurorae, Planetary Scientists Say

Feb 9, 2022 by News Staff

Saturn is unique among planets observed to date in that some of its aurorae are generated by swirling winds within its atmosphere, and not just from the...

Jupiter is shown in visible light for context underneath an artistic impression of the Jovian upper atmosphere’s infrared glow. The brightness of this upper atmosphere layer corresponds to temperatures, from hot to cold, in this order: white, yellow, bright red and lastly, dark red. The aurorae are the hottest regions and the image shows how heat may be carried by winds away from the aurora and cause planet-wide heating. Image credit: J. O’Donoghue, JAXA / Hubble / NASA / ESA / A. Simon / J. Schmidt.

Jupiter’s Powerful Polar Aurorae are Responsible for Upper-Atmospheric Heating, Study Shows

Aug 5, 2021 by News Staff

The upper atmosphere of Jupiter is hotter than expected from the amount of sunlight that it receives: the average temperature should be about minus 73...

Roth et al. reveal the first evidence for water vapor in the atmosphere of Ganymede, the result of the thermal escape of water vapor from the moon’s icy surface. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. daSilva.

Hubble Detects Water Vapor in Atmosphere of Ganymede

Jul 26, 2021 by News Staff

Jupiter’s icy satellite Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System. Water ice on its surface is frozen solid in frigid temperatures as low as minus...

Jupiter’s X-ray aurorae. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Zhonghua Yao / William Dunn.

Planetary Scientists Solve Mystery of Jupiter’s X-Ray Auroral Flares

Jul 12, 2021 by News Staff

The rapidly rotating, strong magnetic field of Jupiter provides a natural lab that is key to understanding the dynamics of high-energy plasmas. Spectacular...

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