The James Webb Space Telescope has captured vivid auroras on Jupiter that shine hundreds of times brighter than Earth’s, revealing extreme magnetic activity.
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| Stunning new images from NASA’s James Webb Telescope reveal Jupiter’s auroras shining hundreds of times brighter than Earth’s northern lights. Image: NASA |
WASHINGTON, USA — May 13, 2025:
Newly released images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed spectacular auroras on Jupiter that outshine their Earthly counterparts by hundreds of times, offering a vivid look at the extreme magnetism surrounding the gas giant.
Captured on December 25, 2023, these powerful light displays illuminate the planet's polar regions, where charged particles from solar winds slam into Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, energizing gas atoms and producing intense, shimmering auroras. The phenomenon is similar to Earth's northern and southern lights — but exponentially more radiant.
According to an international team of scientists analyzing the data, these auroras reflect Jupiter’s colossal magnetic field, which is the strongest of any planet in the solar system. “These auroras are not just beautiful — they’re windows into the physics of a planet on a much larger scale than our own,” one researcher noted.
The latest observations continue the telescope’s streak of firsts. Earlier, Webb provided the clearest views yet of Neptune’s auroras, decades after NASA’s Voyager 2 mission offered the first hints of their existence.
The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, is equipped with advanced infrared sensors that can peer through space dust and capture faint heat signatures. This allows astronomers to explore distant celestial phenomena — from galaxy formation to planetary weather systems — with unprecedented clarity.
Scientists say the data from Jupiter’s auroras could help model the behavior of exoplanets with strong magnetic fields, deepening our understanding of planet-star interactions across the galaxy.
As Webb continues to deliver stunning imagery and transformative data, it is reshaping humanity’s view of the solar system and beyond, with Jupiter’s blazing auroras offering just one more dazzling chapter in its unfolding story.