Check Out Jupiter’s Stunning Auroras, Which Are Hundreds of Times Brighter Than Earth’s, in the James Webb Telescope’s Latest Images The infrared views, captured in 2023, shed light on the giant planet’s atmosphere and magnetosphere—but they also reveal something unexpected These observations of Jupiter’s auroras (shown on the left of the above image) were captured with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera on December 25, 2023. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester) In May 2024, powerful solar activity triggered jaw-dropping northern lights much farther south than usual, turning the sky mesmerizing shades of pink, green and purple over wide areas of the planet. But on Jupiter, auroras are hundreds of times brighter. Now, almost exactly a year since one of Earth’s most impressive light shows, researchers have released brilliant new images of Jupiter’s auroras, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on December 25, 2023. As detailed in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Communications, the images literally shed new light on the magnetosphere and atmosphere of our solar system’s largest planet. “What a Christmas present it was—it just blew me away!” study lead author Jonathan Nichols, a space physicist from the University of Leicester in England, says in a NASA statement. “We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting them to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second.” Webb Captures Jupiter's Aurora Watch on On Earth, auroras occur when the sun pelts our planet with charged particles ejected in solar storms. These particles interact with gases in our upper atmosphere, making them glow in different colors. Earth’s magnetic sphere actually deflects these charged particles toward the planet’s poles—that’s why the resulting auroras are called the northern or southern lights. While solar storms contribute to auroras on Jupiter, the giant planet’s magnetic field also captures additional charged particles, such as those ejected by volcanoes on its moon Io, according to the statement. These particles get accelerated toward the poles at extreme speeds, then crash into the atmosphere, causing its gases to glow. “Think northern lights, but way bigger!” reads an X post from NASA. The JWST previously documented Jupiter’s auroras in 2022. Nichols and his colleagues analyzed infrared light emitted by a positively charged molecule called the trihydrogen cation (H3+), which can form in auroras. They revealed that the molecule’s emission fluctuates more than they’d previously theorized—an observation that, with more research, will provide insight into how Jupiter’s upper atmosphere heats up and cools down. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's recent images of the auroras on Jupiter NASA, ESA, CSA, Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), Mahdi Zamani (ESA / Webb) The team also found something else unexpected: When they captured images at the same time in ultraviolet light with the Hubble Space Telescope, they realized the brightest infrared light imaged by JWST didn’t correspond with Hubble’s ultraviolet version. They thought the Hubble telescope would show evidence of the aurora-creating, high-energy cosmic particles slamming into Jupiter’s atmosphere—but it didn’t. “What we’re seeing is an incredibly bright afterglow with not much evidence of the original impact,” Nichols tells Mashable’s Elisha Sauers. “The explanation currently eludes us.” This suggests Jupiter had auroras without an onslaught of high-energy particles. Instead, its auroras seen by JWST might have come from a high number of very low-energy particles raining down on the atmosphere, “which was previously thought to be impossible,” Nichols adds in the statement. If that’s not the explanation, it suggests Jupiter’s atmosphere may have some dynamics that aren’t fully understood yet. Moving forward, the team plans to continue investigating this conundrum with more JWST observations and comparisons to data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.