Auroras and the Magnetosphere of Jupiter

Jupiter has auroras. Like near the Earth, the magnetic field of our Solar System 's largest planet compresses when impacted by a gust of charged particles from the Sun . This magnetic compression funnels charged particles towards Jupiter 's poles and down into the atmosphere. There, electrons are temporarily excited or knocked away from atmospheric gases, after which, when de-exciting or recombining with atmospheric ions, auroral light is emitted. The featured illustration portrays the magnificent magnetosphere around Jupiter in action. In the inset image released last month, the Earth-orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory shows unexpectedly powerful X-ray light emitted by Jovian auroras, depicted in false-colored purple. That Chandra inset is superposed over an optical image taken at a different time by the Hubble Space Telescope . This aurora on Jupiter was seen in October 2011 , several days after the Sun emitted a powerful Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).