# @europeanspaceagency on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DI_vQiUNnhh
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/35582151-europeanspaceagency-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/bfc1f34985.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-04-28T15:50:00.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** J.L.Lopez (@xandler80) — https://gondola.cc/xandler80

## Caption

Neptune’s auroras: the final giant has joined the glow-up! 🔵

For the first time, esawebb has captured bright auroral activity on Neptune — and it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Auroras happen when charged particles (often from the Sun) get caught in a planet’s magnetic field and crash into the upper atmosphere, releasing that signature glowing light. We’ve seen them on Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus… but Neptune’s remained elusive — until now.

Thanks to Webb’s near-infrared vision, astronomers finally spotted Neptune’s shimmering auroras glowing in cyan. But here’s the twist: unlike Earth’s auroras, which stick to the poles, Neptune’s appear around its mid-latitudes — a result of its wildly tilted magnetic field (47 degrees off its rotation axis!).

Using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph, scientists also: 
– Detected the aurora-linked molecule H₃⁺ for the first time on Neptune
– Measured the temperature of the upper atmosphere (spoiler: it’s much colder than expected)
– Discovered that this extreme cold may explain why Neptune’s auroras had stayed hidden for so long

Neptune’s auroras don’t just look stunning — they open a whole new window into the outer Solar System. Researchers now hope to monitor them throughout the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle, potentially unlocking secrets about Neptune’s bizarre magnetic field.

Another Webb first — and another giant leap for planetary science.

📸 europeanspaceagency / Webb, NASA, canadianspaceagency , space_telescopes,  Heidi Hammel (AURA), Henrik Melin (northumbriauni), Leigh Fletcher (uniofleicester), Stefanie Milam (NASA-GSFC); creativecommons BY 4.0

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 11,209
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 32

## Credits

These are the roles credited on Gondola. Credits may be incomplete.
A brand, account owner, or featured person is not necessarily the creator.

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ESA - European Space Agency | @europeanspaceagency | https://gondola.cc/europeanspaceagency | Government Organization |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Producer |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Editor |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Social Media Manager |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Publisher |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Copywriter |
| J.L.Lopez | @xandler80 | https://gondola.cc/xandler80 | Community Manager |

---
Copyright (c) Gondola