For 50 years astronomers have been confused about Jupiter’s “energy crisis”, the difference in the measured temperature of the atmosphere above it, and it seems much hotter than previously predicted in theory. Now, there is an explanation of a new paper in nature, and it came from the dazzling auroras around the poles of the giant planet. When people begin to worry about the earth’s energy crisis, when oil and gas reserves may run out before replacement, planetary astronomers notice a Jupiter-sized inconsistency. The expected temperature can be predicted based on the amount of sunlight each plant receives.
The greenhouse effect has kept the Earth warmer since the mid-19th century, and space explorations have revealed a larger version of this effect on Venus, but Jupiter has proved difficult to explain. Jupiter’s distance from the Sun is consistent with temperatures of -70 to -100ºC, but the atmosphere above it averages more than 400ºC. This is a huge inconsistency. Hot gases like carbon dioxide couldn’t explain it, and what else failed to do was name Jupiter’s energy crisis.
Io and Amalthea, the elements expelled by volcanoes on Jupiter’s moons, combine with Jupiter’s strong magnetic field to form an aurora that dwarfs Earth’s north and south. Astronomers realized that such a huge amount of energy would not release enough heat to warm the polar atmosphere which could explain the inequality there.
Just like on Earth, auroras do not reach lower latitudes, which keep most of the planet’s temperature undisturbed, especially since strong winds were thought to trap heat near the poles. However, it converts heat energy from the auroras where the lights never work. Dr. James O’Donoghue conducted the central work of the paper to do his at the University of Leicester. “We first began trying to create a global heat map of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere,” he said in a statement.
“The signal wasn’t bright enough to reveal anything outside Jupiter’s polar region at the time, but with the lessons learned from that work, we were able to save time in one of the world’s largest, most competitive telescopes a few years later.” The Cake Telescope has become powerful enough to create temperature maps that represent two degrees latitude and longitude with pixels. This reveals that “Jupiter’s aurora, despite occupying less than 10% of the planet’s territory, seems to be heating up the whole thing,” O’Donoghue said.
