Jupiter's magnetic field left experts scratching their heads because they weren't sure how it operated. However, they discovered it has an atmospheric jet that offers clues about its complex operation.
Jupiter's Blue Spot Has Mysterious Atmospheric Jet
A tiny jet hidden deep within the atmosphere of the gas giant Jupiter provides light on the mysterious mechanisms behind the planet's strong magnetic field. This jet seems to waver around every four years.
Although the cause of this atmospheric jet is still unknown, recent research sheds light on the intricate, unseen processes underlying the "Great Blue Spot," an intense region of magnetism close to Jupiter's equator that gets its name from the color scale used by scientists to map Jupiter's magnetic field.
Unlike Earth's magnetic field, the gas giant's magnetic field is not symmetric with its rotating axis. The asymmetry is so strong that the Great Blue Spot can be compared to a second south pole that protrudes from the planet's equator. Additionally, one jet sweeps one section of the area westward while winds blowing from the east pull on other areas.
"It's a mystery," said Yohai Kaspi, an Earth and planetary sciences professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and a co-investigator of NASA's Juno mission. We don't know why that place has that kind of anomaly."
Researchers employed data returned home by the Juno spacecraft, which is now studying Jupiter, to map the Great Blue Spot due to several focused flybys carried out during the spacecraft's extended mission. According to research lead author Jeremy Bloxham of Harvard University, the new result implies that wave-like behavior may exist deep into Jupiter's metallic core and could be the source of the observed magnetic field, much like ocean waves that change their speed as they move.
The spot's eastward drift, which is primarily responsible for these alterations, is drifting at a variable rate, according to Kaspi, as this research reports.
Compared to previous surface jets that travel several times faster, the discovered jet may even drift in that region at a tiny scale of tens of centimeters per second.
Still, according to Kaspi, who was not involved in the article, the discovery is a "very marginal measurement." He believes that while scientists don't yet have enough information to establish that the jet fluctuates precisely every four years, it's best to think of it as an early result inside the noise threshold.
Ultimately, more Juno observations could provide confidence and advance scientific understanding of the intricate dynamo driving Jupiter's magnetic field.
What Is Jupiter's Great Blue Spot?
The Great Blue Spot (GBS), a strong and solitary patch of magnetic flux in the planet's equator, is rendered in great detail by NASA's Juno probe. From an observation point above the GBS, this orthographic map compares the radial magnetic field to zonal winds determined by following the motion of surface objects. The field looks twisted by the winds, with eastward zonal winds north of the GBS stretching it toward the east and westward zonal winds dragging it to the west.
The Great Blue Spot is an invisible-to-the-eye concentration of magnetic field close to the equator and one particularly prominent characteristic of Jupiter's magnetic field. The strength of the magnetic field is indicated by the depth of color of the gray lines, also known as field lines, which show the direction of the field in space. Dark red and dark blue represent regions with very positive and strongly negative fields, respectively.
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