Jupiters

The hot Jupiters are evaporating, their winds reach 7 km/s and yet something is slowing them down

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The hot Jupiters They are fascinating planets. They orbit so close to their star that they sometimes have orbits of less than a day. Solar radiation is very high, so much so that sometimes these planets are practically evaporating. And they are usually tidally locked. That is, they have one face always facing the Sun and the other always facing the opposite side. As a result, one side is much hotter than the other and receives more radiation, so the gases in its atmosphere ionize, transforming into plasma and moving at high speeds. Put very briefly, they have the strongest winds of all the known planets. However, recently a team of scientists led from the Côte d’Azur Observatory in France, has discovered something very strange. Seven hot Jupiters in which the winds flow much slower than expected. The only explanation that seems logical for this phenomenon is that they are surrounded by a magnetic field. And it is great news, since, if confirmed, it would be the first detection of magnetic activity beyond our solar system. Totally counterintuitive. The speed of a planet’s winds can be measured by tracking the vaporized iron present in the gases in its atmosphere. The authors of the study that has just been published did so with 7 hot Jupiters thanks to two instruments: MAROON-X, from the Gemini North telescope, and ESPRESSO, from the Very Large Telescope (VLT). When analyzing the results they saw that these planets had very high speeds, between 2 and 7 kilometers per second. The winds of our own Jupiter, the fastest in the solar system, are 0.4 km/s, to give us an idea. What happens is that these winds went slower the hotter the planet was. One of the authors of the study, Vivien Parmentier, has rated it as something “totally counterintuitive”, since the logical thing is that the higher the temperature, the faster the wind flows. The key must be in the presence of a magnetic field. In fact, with all this temperature and speed data, they have even been able to calculate its intensity. The thing is about temperatures. Generally, the higher the temperature, the greater the difference between the dark and light sides of the planet and the more excited the ions in the plasma are, so the wind generally moves faster. The logical and expected thing would be that the higher the temperature of a hot Jupiter, the faster its wind. The speeds are very high, but much slower than expected. Furthermore, they are slower the hotter the planet is. The best explanation for this event is the presence of a magnetic field. Magnetic activity and wind. When a magnetic field acts on a moving charged particle, it is affected by something known as the Lorentz force. Very briefly, what happens is that the speed changes direction. The particle does not stop, but goes from flowing freely to being confined within the magnetic field. Every time he encounters his lines, they make him change direction. If we see this as a whole for the entire plasma, since it cannot move freely, its speed decreases. This would explain why a magnetic field was slowing down the wind. But why does it brake more the higher the temperature? Auroras on Earth The secret is inside. The magnetic field of a planet is directly related to the movement of the liquid metals inside it. For example, in the case of Earththe movement of molten iron and nickel on the outside of its core generates electrical currents, which give rise to a geomagnetic field that extends into space. They are responsible for us having that magnetic field that protects us from the sun’s inclemencies. The higher the temperature of a planet, the more violently the molten metals inside it move and, therefore, within limits, the more intense the magnetic field will be. In turn, the more intense it is, the more it will slow down the winds. Possible auroras. The location of auroras on Earth is related to the magnetic field. Another of the authors of the study, Bibiana Prinoth, points out that she likes to imagine that one of these Jupiters has a sky “covered by curtains of colorful light that dance over a planet that is half in perpetual day and half in endless night.” What is it for?. Now that we know that some exoplanets have a magnetic field, we could also take it into account when selecting habitable planets. Logically, hot Jupiters are not candidates at all. However, other less inhospitable planets may also have this protective shield. We already know that it is not enough to just be in the habitable zone. Other qualities, such as housing a sufficient amount of water either be far from supermassive black holes These are conditions that can help us refine the search much better. Each new discovery brings us a little closer to that great discovery. Image | Gemini International Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick | Magnificent In Xataka | The Zoo Hypothesis: Why Aliens Likely Know About Us and Don’t Want to Contact Us

Webb and Hubble telescopes watched Jupiter’s auroras at the same time. For some reason, they did not see the same

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The Great red spot, Polar cyclones, Cloud bands. Jupiter is known for its colossal dimensions and eternal storms. But their auroras are not far behind, and only now We are seeing them in detail Thanks to the power of the James Webb space telescope. A Christmas gift. Newly published with a study of Nature Communicationsthe images were captured on December 25, 2023 with the Nircam Chamber of the Webb Telescope. The most immediate conclusion is that the jovian auroras are of another level. Hundreds of times brighter and more energy than those of the Earth, not only feed, as on our planet, of the particles loaded with the solar wind, but also of the volcanic material expelled by the active moon ío. Hyperactive. The team that led the observations took a surprise when analyzing the data. They hoped to see slow and gradual changes in the auroras, but instead they found “the entire bullendo region and exploding of light”, a hyperactive show that “varied in a matter of seconds.” “What a Christmas gift was that, he left me hallucinated!” Confesses the researcher Jonathan Nichols of the University of Leicester, the United Kingdom. A mystery. To round the study, the team coordinated Webb’s observations in infrared with Simultaneous observations of the Hubble Space Telescope in the ultraviolet spectrum. And here was the puzzle: the brightest lights observed by the Webb in Jupiter’s atmosphere did not have a counterpart in the Hubble images. The webb focused on trihydrogen cation emissions (H3+), a molecule that shines intensely in infrared when high -energy electrons impact molecular hydrogen. But to produce the combination of brightness observed by both telescopes, a huge amount of very low energy particles would be needed by hitting Jupiter’s atmosphere, something that until now was considered practically impossible. What follows. The team plans to study this difference between webb and Hubble data, and explore its implications for Jupiter’s environment. Webb’s next observations will be compared with NASA Juno probe data to try to unravel the origin of the broadcast. The findings will be used to guide the Juice Mission of ESA, who travels now to Jupiter. Seven of their instruments, including their two cameras, will dedicate themselves to study the Jovian auroras when the probe reaches their destination. Its nearby measurements will help astronomers better understand the interaction between the magnetic field and the planet’s atmosphere, in addition to the moon ío. Images | NASA, ESA, CSA In Xataka | These real images were unthinkable before the Webb Telescope: they are planets orbiting other stars to 130 light years

Reviewing data almost 30 years ago, scientists believe they have identified a new ocean in one of Jupiter’s moons

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On September 21, 2003 the Galileo probe He was immolated in Jupiter’s dense atmosphere, the planet he had been investigating for almost a decade. 30 years after the arrival of the probe to the Jovian orbit and more than 20 years after the end of its mission, the NASA probe continues to offer us new information thanks to the old data that it sent us in its day. A new oceanic world. The study in question has indicated that Calisto is “most likely” an ocean world, a rocky body covered by a layer of water at least in a liquid. The key to the new study has been in a more exhaustive use of the data provided by the Galileo mission, including all its magnetic measurements. Callisto Callisto It is the satellite farther from your planet of Among the so -called four Galilean moons of Jupiter. It is also the second largest moon of Jupiter, with a simular size to that of mercury but with a remarkably smaller mass. One of the most striking details is its surface full of craters which gives Callisto an appearance “similar to a golf ball” The suspicion that this satellite hid an ocean inside It is not newbut the intensity of his ionosphere had been a limit to our ability to study the interior of the Jovian moon from a distance. The reason is that researchers They believed That the satellite ionosphere, an electrically and located conductive region located in the highest layers of Calisto’s atmosphere, could be “imitating” the magnetic footprint that would emit a hypothetical salt and conductive water ocean. That is, astronomers could not know if the magnetism detected proceeded from outside or inside the moon. A new look. New data and analysis tools have allowed to solve this issue. The team responsible for the new study incorporated the set of measurements Magnetic available from the eight occasions in which the Galileo probe survived Callisto. Combining methods. The team combined the analysis of the data obtained by Galileo with a model that simulated Calisto’s ionosphere. They compared the results of the observations with what the suggested in the theoretical model. From the results obtained, the team responsible for the study concludes that the satellite ionosphere cannot by itself explain the magnetism detected, but that the existence of a salt water ocean under the surface of the moon could contribute to the observations. The results therefore suggest the existence of such an ocean. The details of the analysis and its results have been published In an article In the magazine AG ADVANCES. The oceanic worlds of our solar system. Calisto is just one more in The list of candidates To oceanic worlds in our solar system, a list that includes different bodies in which we believe, with greater or lesser degree of certainty, that there are oceans. This list includes other moons such as Europe, Ganymedes, Lord it, Triton, and also a dwarf planet: Pluto. These planets are of great interest to astrobiology since they are the main candidates to house life or the appropriate conditions for the emergence of this in our space neighborhood. That is why a whole new generation of probes is focused on The study of this type of environments. The list includes NASA’s Europe Clipper Mission, and Juice (JUPITER ICY MOONS EXPLORER) of the European Space Agency. The first will be focused on analyzing in depth the moon Europe while the European mission will travel to several of these frozen worlds to collect information about what their layers of ice hide. To these missions, China Tianwen-4 could be added, whose observations could also give us important data about Calisto and his hidden ocean. In Xataka | Juno has just given us an image we had never seen: lava rivers in a Jupiter satellite Image | NASA/JPL/DLR

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