For decades, scientists had the data and measurements of temperature of top of the atmospheres of the Gas Giants and Ice Giants i.e. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. And they've always been too hot. But when the scientists modelled them, the sun's heat shouldn't heat up the temperatures of those atmospheres that much.
Space scientists at the University of Leicester worked with colleagues from the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA), Boston University, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) to reveal the mechanism behind Jupiter's atmospheric heating.
It is an attempt from observers to provide data to the modelers to understand what's really going on.
Now, using data from the Keck Observatory in Hawai'i, astronomers have created the most-detailed yet global map of the gas giant's upper atmosphere, confirming for the first time that Jupiter's powerful aurorae are responsible for delivering planet-wide heating.
It is understood that the heat source is not at the equator but the aurorae near the poles which are responsible for heating the atmosphere.
The scientists first began trying to create a heat map of the entire Jupiter's uppermost atmosphere at the University of Leicester. The signal coming from the planet was not bright enough to reveal anything outside of Jupiter's polar regions at the time. The resolution was so bad they couldn't notice any details clearly. But they used one of the advanced most competitive telescopes on Earth some years later, which could be used to pick up sensitive data.
Using the Keck telescope the scientists at the University of Leicester produced temperature maps of great detail. They found that temperatures start very high at the polar regions where the auroras are present, as expected from previous work, but now they discovered that in spite of covering only 10% of the planet, they heated up the entire planet.
At Jupiter, the material spewing from its volcanic moon, Io, leads to the most powerful aurora in the Solar System and enormous heating in the polar regions of the planet.
This has revealed the secret behind energy crisis in Jupiter.
https://le.ac.uk/news/2021/august/jupiter-energy-crisis
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210804123339.htm
Credits:
University of Leicester YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/JE3bv9gCSPY
By NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester) - http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/24, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49826336
By NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) - http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1410a/ or http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2014/24/image/b/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32799232
By NASA/GSFC/Jay Friedlander - https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA24524.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107605031
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