Jupiter’s X-ray auroras pulse independently

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. "We didn't expect to see Jupiter's X-ray hot spots pulsing independently as we thought their activity would be coordinated through the planet's magnetic field. We need to study this further to develop ideas for how Jupiter produces its X-ray aurora and NASA's Juno mission is really important for this," explained lead author, William Dunn (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA).