Solar storms trigger Jupiter’s ’Northern Lights’

Solar storms trigger Jupiter's intense 'Northern Lights' by generating a new X-ray aurora that is eight times brighter than normal and hundreds of times more energetic than Earth's aurora borealis, finds new UCL-led research using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. It is the first time that Jupiter's X-ray aurora has been studied when a giant storm from the Sun has arrived at the planet. The dramatic findings complement NASA's Juno mission this summer which aims to understand the relationship between the two biggest structures in the solar system - the region of space controlled by Jupiter's magnetic field (i.e. its magnetosphere) and that controlled by the solar wind. "There's a constant power struggle between the solar wind and Jupiter's magnetosphere. We want to understand this interaction and what effect it has on the planet. By studying how the aurora changes, we can discover more about the region of space controlled by Jupiter's magnetic field, and if or how this is influenced by the Sun.