February 13, 2017 - Jovian Northern Lights

Jovian Northern Lights Astronomers are using the Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras—stunning light shows in a planet’s atmosphere—on Jupiter’s poles. Hubble captured the auroras during a series of far-ultraviolet-light observations taking place as NASA’s Juno spacecraft approached Jupiter in 2016. The aim of the observations is to determine how Jupiter’s auroras respond to changing conditions in the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted from the sun. Auroras are formed when charged particles in the space surrounding the planet are accelerated to high energies along the planet’s magnetic field. When the particles hit the atmosphere near the magnetic poles, they cause it to glow like gases in a fluorescent light fixture. Jupiter’s magnetosphere is 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester)

Weekly Calendar

February 13-19, 2017

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 13

1852: Johan Dreyer born
1937: Sigmund Jähn born, first German to fly in space

Tuesday 14

Valentine’s Day

1972: Luna 20 launched
1980: Solar Max launched
1990: Voyager 1 takes solar system "family portrait"
2000: NEAR-Shoemaker orbits asteroid Eros

Wednesday 15

Jupiter 3° south of Moon

1564: Galileo Galilei born
1973: Pioneer 10 becomes first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt
2013: Meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia injuring 1,500 people

Thursday 16

1948: Gerard Kuiper discovers Miranda, moon of Uranus
1965: Saturn SA-9 launched

Friday 17

Venus at greatest illuminated extent

1959: Vanguard 2 launched
1965: Ranger 8 launched
1996: NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft launched
2007: THEMIS spacecraft launched
2009: Dawn spacecraft flies by Mars