✦ Today's cosmos

An Auroral Ring on Jupiter

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day · June 9, 1997
An Auroral Ring on Jupiter
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via NASA APOD
◆ What you're looking at
Do other planets have aurora? Terrestrial and spacecraft observations have found evidence for aurora on Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. In the above false-color photograph, a good portion of an auroral ring was captured recently in optical light by the Galileo spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter. Auroral rings encircle a planet's magnetic pole, and result from charged particles spiraling down magnetic field lines. Although the surroundings near Jupiter are much different than Earth, the auroral rings appear similar.