Solar Wind Heating Up Jupiter’s Atmosphere

Recent observations by the Earth-based telescope have inclined to that auroras inside the Jupiter's poles which are heating Jupiter’s atmosphere at a higherdensity than accumulatedbefore and it is said to be the rapid response of solar wind.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California leading researcher James Sinclair said that "An extreme example of the space weather is the solar wind impacting the Jupiter" whose research is published in Nature Astronomy on April 8, 2019. He further quoted that "Deeper than normal Impact of Solar wind is noticed at the Jupiter’s Atmosphere”. While talking about the impact of Solar Wind on Earth poles, he concluded that Auroras at the Earth's poles which includes aurora borealis at the North Pole and the other aurora australis at the South Pole, has an occurrence at a point when the particles blows out from the Sun we call it as the solar wind whichcomes in contact with and thus heats up the gases existing in the upper atmosphere of the Planet. The same process occur at Jupiter, but the observations by the Earth based telescope shows that the heating at Jupiter happens two or three times deeper into depth of its atmosphere in comparison to that of Earth, in lower level of its upper atmosphere or stratosphere.Understanding the process that how the Sun's constant rapid streaming of the solar wind that comes in contact with the planetary gases and environments is a base to better understand the real nature of the procedure as to the evolution at planets and their atmospheres. Through this the variations in the heat of solar wind and the evolution in the stratosphere can be accumulated and that comparison of these variations is notable which is higher for such a large area. That soon after a day when the solar wind hit at Jupiter, the chemistry of its environment and atmosphere changed at higher extent and its temperature rose beyond the accumulations, the team conducted a study. An infrared image was also captured at different intervals during the observing period in January, February and then in May, 2017 which clearly shows that the hot spots are located near the poles, where the Jupiter's auroras are designated. The scientists relied their findings on the observations done by the Subaru Telescope, conducted at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, which is an operation of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

By: AnujaArora

Link:https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/899/jupiters-atmosphere-heats-up-under-solar-wind/