Credit: NASA/SWRI/G.R.Gladstone et al. (Chandra); SWRI/H.Waite, R.Gladstone (ROSAT)
Jupiter Then and Now
The gas giant Jupiter has a very strong magnetic field, produced by the
"dynamo effect" which is also responsible for the magnetic field of earth.
The magnetic field captures high energy particles, and as the particles
slow in the magnetic field they radiate in X-rays. The image on the right
is an image obtained by the ROSAT
satellite at a particularly catastrophic time in the recent history of
Jupiter, namely the collision
of the comet Shoemaker-Levy with the planet. The ROSAT image shows
enhanced X-ray emission near Jupiter's north and south poles, though ROSAT
could not provide any fine detail regarding the distribution of the
emission. The image on the left shows a recent X-ray image of
Jupiter obtained by the Chandra
X-ray Observatory during a more peaceful time. Chandra's exquisite
X-ray mirrors and detectors are able to show detail of the emission near
the poles, and to detect emission across the disk of Jupiter as well. The
Chandra image provides some puzzles for astronomers - the location of the
X-ray emission near the poles is a bit of a surprise, and probably
indicates that most of the X-rays at the time of the Chandra observation
come from the capture of particles from the solar wind. At the time of the
ROSAT observation most of the ions presumably were produced in the cometary
collision.
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Page Author: Dr. Michael F.
Corcoran
Last modified March 4, 2002
