Stunning new images from the James Webb Space Telescope show that Jupiter’s auroras shine hundreds of times more brightly than those on Earth.
These brilliant light displays occur when energetic particles from space crash into gas atoms in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere near its magnetic poles — a phenomenon similar to the auroras, or northern lights, seen on Earth.
But Jupiter’s version has much greater intensity, according to an international team of scientists who analyzed the photos from Webb taken on Christmas in 2023.
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Webb previously captured Neptune’s glowing auroras in the best detail yet, many decades after they were first faintly detected during a flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft.