UCL: Jupiter's X-ray Auroras Pulse Independently

[bystander]

Jupiter's X-ray Auroras Pulse Independently
University College London | 2017 Oct 30

[img3="Jupiter’s south pole, as seen by Juno from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers) (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles)"]http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles ... upiter.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

Jupiter’s intense northern and southern lights pulse independently of each other according to new UCL-led research using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatories.

The study, published today in Nature Astronomy, found that very high-energy X-ray emissions at Jupiter’s south pole consistently pulse every 11 minutes. Meanwhile those at the north pole are erratic: increasing and decreasing in brightness, independent of the south pole.

This behaviour is distinct from Earth’s north and south auroras which broadly mirror each other in activity. Other similarly large planets, such as Saturn, do not produce any detectable X-ray aurora, which makes the findings at Jupiter particularly puzzling. ...

The Independent Pulsations of Jupiter’s Northern and Southern X-ray Auroras - W. R. Dunn et al

• Nature Astronomy (online 30 Oct 2017) DOI: 10.1038/s41550-017-0262-6

[bystander]

The Dynamic Duo: Jupiter's Independently Pulsating X-ray Auroras
NASA | MSFC | SAO | Chandra X-ray Observatory | 2017 Nov 06

[img3=""]https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... 171106.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

Jupiter's intense northern and southern lights, or auroras, behave independently of each other according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray and ESA's XMM-Newton observatories.

Using XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray observations from March 2007 and May and June 2016, a team of researchers produced maps of Jupiter's X-ray emissions and identified an X-ray hot spot at each pole. Each hot spot can cover an area equal to about half the surface of the Earth.

The team found that the hot spots had very different characteristics. The X-ray emission at Jupiter's south pole consistently pulsed every 11 minutes, but the X-rays seen from the north pole were erratic, increasing and decreasing in brightness — seemingly independent of the emission from the south pole. ...

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