# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CRuI5-OpY6D
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11733342-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/legacy-do/5611855ca0997c5c6bb96bbe299c21289d82ee403d0ce0aefb4d1f9a8d63d1d5.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-07-24T19:02:03.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

What causes X-ray auroras on Jupiter? Ions "surfing" electromagnetic waves! ⚛️ 🌊⁣
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Jupiter has the most powerful auroras in the solar system, and is the only one of the four giant planets with an aurora that has been found to emit X-rays. Planetary astronomers knew the auroras are triggered by ions crashing into Jupiter’s atmosphere. Now, they have learned how the ions responsible for the X-ray light show are able to get to the atmosphere.⁣
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Scientists combined measurements taken by our Juno spacecraft with data from the EuropeanSpaceAgency's XMM-Newton mission, to solve a 40-year-old mystery about the origins of Jupiter’s unusual X-ray auroras. For the first time, they have seen the entire mechanism at work: The electrically charged atoms, or ions, responsible for the X-rays are “surfing” electromagnetic waves in Jupiter’s magnetic field, down into the gas giant’s atmosphere.⁣
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The purple hues in this image show the X-ray emissions from Jupiter’s auroras, detected by our Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2007. They are overlaid on an image of Jupiter taken by our Hubble Space Telescope. ⁣
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Credit: (X-ray) NASA/CXC/SwRI/R.Gladstone et al.; (Optical) NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage (AURA/STScI)⁣
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#Jupiter #Aurora #PlanetaryScience #XRayVision

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## Credits

No public credits are recorded here. This does not identify who made the post.

## Tags

xrayvision, aurora, planetaryscience, jupiter

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