For several years, astronomers had predicted the intensity of Neptune’s auroras based on the temperature registered by Voyager 2. NASA experts stressed that cold auroras are “much more dim.”
NASA’s James Webb space telescope has managed A phenomenon that occurs when energy particles, generally from the sun, are trapped in the magnetic field of a planet and impact its upper atmosphere. According to NASA, the finding was made in June 2023 and marks a milestone in the study of the planets of the Solar System.
Although the auroras had already been detected on planets such as Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, Neptune represented the last missing link in the understanding of this phenomenon on the outer planets. The advance was possible thanks to the sensitivity in the infrared spectrum of the James Webb space telescope, which allowed to capture details never seen before.
Henrik Melin, principal research researcher and scientist at the University of Northumbria, explained that the level of detail and clarity of the images was surprising. “I was stunned: Neptune’s upper atmosphere has cooled several hundred degrees. In fact, the temperature in 2023 was a little more than half than in 1989,” Melin said.
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H3 is a key factor of auroral activity
On planets such as Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, and its detection in Neptune, it confirms that this phenomenon is also present on the most distant planet of the solar system. In the images captured by the Webb, Auroras appear as cyan color spots, which offers a visual representation of this phenomenon. The auroras in Neptune suppose an important advance in the understanding of the magnetic and atmospheric processes of the giant planets.
The future of the James Webb telescope in NASA
NASA scientists expect these new findings to allow astronomers to study Neptune with the Webb Telescope throughout a complete solar cycle. This element is considered by NASA astronomers as the main space of space sciences in the worldcapable of “solving mysteries” of the solar system and observing “distant worlds” that are around other stars.
Source: Ambito
