aurora over Saturn confounds scientists

[uptowngirl]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1085354/Mysterious-glowing-aurora-Saturn-confounds-scientists.html




Saturn Aurora



Mysterious glowing aurora over Saturn confounds scientists

A stunning light display over Saturn has stumped scientists who say it behaves unlike any other planetary aurora known in our solar system.
The blueish-green glow was found over the ringed planet's north polar region just like Earth's northern lights.
It was discovered by the infrared instruments on NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Enlarge    The northern polar region of Saturn shows both the aurora and underlying atmosphere, as captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft
'We've never seen an aurora like this elsewhere,' said Tom Stallard, a scientist working with Cassini data at the University of Leicester.
'This aurora covers an enormous area across the pole. Our current ideas on what forms Saturn's aurora predict that this region should be empty, so finding such a bright aurora here is a fantastic surprise.'

Auroras are caused by charged particles streaming along the magnetic field lines of a planet into its atmosphere.
Particles from the sun cause Earth's auroras. Many, but not all, of the auroras at Jupiter and Saturn are caused by particles trapped within the magnetic environments of those planets.
Enlarge    A green aurora dances over the night side of the Earth as seen from the International Space Station in 2003. Earth, Jupiter and Saturn all have dazzling auroras
Jupiter's main auroral ring is caused by interactions in Jupiter's magnetic environment and remains constant in size. Saturn's main aurora is caused by the solar wind, and changes size dramatically as the wind varies. However, the newly observed aurora at Saturn doesn't fit into either category.

The new infrared aurora appears in a region hidden from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Cassini observed it when the spacecraft flew near Saturn's polar region.

In infrared light, the aurora sometimes fills the region from around 82 degrees north all the way over the pole. This new aurora is also constantly changing, even disappearing within a 45 minute-period.
'There is something special and unforeseen about this planet's magnetosphere and the way it interacts with the solar wind and the planet's atmosphere,' Cassini scientist Nick Achilleos from the University College London said.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.


Earth Aurora

[JeffreyS]

That would be cool to see if we can ever effectively travel around our solar system.

[uptowngirl]

The picture was amazing and love the "riddle of it" so I had to post, wish they had some more!

[Jason]

Neat stuff!  If we ever get to travel through space I call dibs on "Scotty" as my nickname. 

[uptowngirl]

I saw on the news today that they actually saw a planret in another solar system, not just proof one exists, but actually saw it! They showed the pic on TV and it was really great.

I am an unofficial space geek.... don't know much about it but love to read and see the pictures!

[uptowngirl]

Images: Hubble observes planet orbiting another star



From images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, for the first time astronomers have spotted a planet orbiting a star outside our solar system.

The planet, Fomalhaut b, maintains an orbit around the star Fomalhaut and has three times the mass of Jupiter.

"Our Hubble observations were incredibly demanding. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than the star. We began this program in 2001, and our persistence finally paid off," said Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley.

[Jason]

One billion times fainter!?  Man, that is one powerful telescope.