Hubble captures vibrant auroras above the clouds of Jupiter

Thursday, June 30, 2016, 1:59 PM - Get ready! NASA's Juno is only days away from its Jupiter arrival, and Hubble is already trying to "show it up," and today, June 30, is the 2nd annual Asteroid Day! It's What's Up In Space!

Juno on approach to mighty Jupiter!

We've been wow'ing over images of Mars and Saturn for years now, sent back by MRO and Cassini, respectively. Pictures of Pluto and its moons have been downlinking from New Horizons since last July. Now we're in for a spectacular new treat.

NASA's Juno spacecraft, launched in August of 2011, is now on final approach to Jupiter orbital insertion, which is scheduled to take place at 11:18 p.m. EDT on July 4, 2016.

As a preview of the amazing imagery this mission promises to deliver over the next 20 months or so, Juno snapped this picture as it approached the massive planet and its largest moons.

NASA's Juno spacecraft obtained this color view on June 21, 2016, at a distance of 10.9 million kilometers from Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Juno is in for some harsh conditions once it settles into orbit. Jupiter puts off deadly doses of radiation, such that over the course of the next 20 months, the spacecraft will be subjected to some 10,000 rads, and the planet generates intense magnetic fields. These magnetic fields are one of the reasons why NASA sent this spacecraft, as they detail in the video below:

Not to be outdone, the Hubble Space Telescope isn't waiting for Juno to arrive to help it out with its mission. On May 19 and June 2, 2016, images taken by with telescope captured swirling ultraviolet auroras around Jupiter's north polar region, shown in the video leading off the story, and in the image below.

"These auroras are very dramatic and among the most active I have ever seen," Jonathan Nichols, the principle investigator of this study, from the University of Leicester, UK, said in a Hubble statement. "It almost seems as if Jupiter is throwing a fireworks party for the imminent arrival of Juno."

A composite image of the ultraviolet auroras with colour Jupiter images captured previously, as part of Hubble's Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program. Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester)

According to Hubble:

Not only are the auroras huge in size, they are also hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth. And, unlike those on Earth, they never cease. While on Earth the most intense auroras are caused by solar storms — when charged particles rain down on the upper atmosphere, excite gases, and cause them to glow red, green, and purple — Jupiter has an additional source for its auroras.
The strong magnetic field of the gas giant grabs charged particles from its surroundings. This includes not only the charged particles within the solar wind, but also the particles thrown into space by its orbiting moon Io, known for its numerous and large volcanos.
The new observations and measurements made with Hubble and Juno will help to better understand how the sun and other sources influence auroras. While the observations with Hubble are still ongoing and the analysis of the data will take several more months, the first images and videos are already available and show the auroras on Jupiter's north pole in their full beauty. In support of the Juno mission, Hubble will continue to monitor Jupiter auroras several times a month for the duration of the Juno mission.

Stay tuned for more updates from Juno and Hubble as their cooperative mission continues!

A night to watch the skies!

On June 30, 1908, the early morning sky above Tunguska, Siberia lit up as bright as noon, as a large object plunged into Earth's atmosphere and exploded. Trees were leveled in an area of 2,000 square kilometres around the impact site, and over 60 kilometres away from ground zero, a man was blown off his porch by the force of the air blast. While it is still debated whether this was an asteroid or comet, due to the lack of any significant debris left behind by the impactor, this event still counts as the largest impact event in human history.

February 15, 2013, a 20 metre asteroid soars across Chelyabinsk, Russia and explodes, shattering windows and injuring nearly 1,500 people. Due to the prevalence of dashboard cameras in the area, this becomes the best documented asteroid impact ever.

June 30, 2015 - the first Asteroid Day is held, to mark the anniversary of the Tunguska event, but also to highlight the danger that asteroids present to the public.

Now that we're coming up on the 2nd annual Asteroid Day, event organizers have produced a series of videos to entertain and educate, while never losing sight of our need for greater vigilance, so that we can find all of the objects that may threaten our existence.

In addition to Asteroid Day, June 30 is also Meteor Watch Day, a day - or to be specific a night - to celebrate the harmless meteors that streak through our sky.

The only meteor shower currently happening is the June Bootids, which peaked on the 28th. Unlike other showers, which are a bit more regular with the number of meteors, the June Bootids are much more variable. Most times, it only produces a handful of bright meteors at its peak, but it has made much stronger showings early in the 20th century.

For the best upcoming meteor showers, we need to wait for the "twin" Delta Aquarid showers in late July/early August, and the Perseid meteor shower in mid-August. Check out the details of these events in our Summer Astronomy guide.

Sources: Asteroid Day | NASA | Hubble

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