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Journalism of Courage
Most images of Jupiter prominently feature many of the gas giant’s characteristic stripes. Apart from its giant red dot, one of the most fascinating features of the planet’s surface is that those stripes sometimes move and change, which scientists have not been able to explain until now.
But now, thanks to a new discovery which was made in part due to new information about Jupiter’s magnetic field, researchers think they have an explanation for why it happens, according to the University of Leeds.
Every four of five years, things change on the planet, according to Jones. Sometimes, the colours of the belts can change, and scientists have sometimes observed global upheavals in the weather patterns. Why this happens has largely remained a mystery.
There is already evidence that points to this change in appearance being linked to infrared variations about 50 kilometres below Jupiter’s surface. But the new research by Jones and others shows that these variations could be caused by waves produced by the gas giant’s magnetic field, deep within the planet’s interior.
The researchers used data gathered by NASA’s Juno mission to the planet and they were able to monitor and calculate changes in its magnetic field. The researchers found that the planet’s magnetic field’s oscillations corresponded to the periods of infrared radiation from its gases.
