Aurora over Jupiter's South Pole from Juno
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, ASI, INAF, JIRAM
Explanation: Why is there a glowing oval over Jupiter's South Pole? Aurora. Near the closest part of its first pass near
Jupiter in August, NASA's robotic
spacecraft Juno captured
this dramatic infrared image of a bright
auroral ring. Auroras are caused by high energy particles from the Sun interacting with a planet's magnetic field, and
ovals around
magnetic poles are common. Data from
Juno are giving preliminary indications that
Jupiter's magnetic field and aurorae are unexpectedly powerful and
complex. Unfortunately, a computer
glitch caused Juno to go into
safe mode during its last pass near the Jovian giant in September. That glitch has now been resolved, making
Juno ready for its next pass over Jupiter's cloud tops this coming Sunday.
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