Auroras on Jupiter Way Brighter Than Ours

Webb telescope captures that planet's version of the northern lights
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 12, 2025 4:22 PM CDT
It's Jupiter's Version of the Northern Lights
This image provided by NASA shows new details of the auroras on Jupiter captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.   (NASA via AP)

Jupiter's dazzling auroras are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth, new images from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal. The solar system's largest planet displays striking dancing lights when high-energy particles from space collide with atoms of gas in the atmosphere near its magnetic poles, similar to how the northern lights are triggered on Earth, per the AP.

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. 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.

(More Jupiter stories.)

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