Here’s how they’re different and the same as ours.
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00:00 [Music]
00:03 What you're seeing are the gorgeous auroras of Jupiter,
00:06 captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.
00:08 They're caused in the same way they are on Earth,
00:10 when charged particles from the Sun slam into the planet's magnetosphere,
00:14 ionizing other particles in the planet's upper atmosphere.
00:16 But now astronomers have discovered these same phenomena on Jupiter's Galilean moons.
00:21 According to a recent study,
00:22 Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto all have oxygen aurora.
00:26 On planet Earth, we have a variety of colorful auroras,
00:28 but the most common is no doubt green.
00:30 On Jupiter's moons, however,
00:32 the researchers found only those that are shades of reds,
00:34 but they are also 15 times brighter than those on Earth.
00:37 The study was conducted by looking at Jupiter's moons
00:40 right as they went into the planet's gigantic shadow,
00:42 allowing the illumination of the auroras to shine more easily,
00:45 with the researchers writing, quote,
00:47 "The light emitted by their faint aurorae
00:49 is the only confirmation that we've even pointed the telescope at the right place.
00:52 The brightness of the different colors of aurora
00:54 tell us what these moons' atmospheres are likely made of."
00:57 The data also allowed scientists to look at how temperature changes
01:00 affected the moons as they entered Jupiter's dark shadow.
01:03 [music]