Ultraviolet emissions from the magnetic footprints of Io, Ganymede and Europa on Jupiter

J. T. Clarke (), J. Ajello, G. Ballester, L. Ben Jaffel, J. Connerney, J.-C. Gérard, G. R. Gladstone, D. Grodent, W. Pryor, J. Trauger and J. H. Waite
Additional contact information
J. T. Clarke: Boston University
J. Ajello: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
G. Ballester: University of Michigan
L. Ben Jaffel: Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris–CNRS
J. Connerney: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
J.-C. Gérard: Université de Liège
G. R. Gladstone: Southwest Research Institute
D. Grodent: Université de Liège
W. Pryor: University of Colorado
J. Trauger: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
J. H. Waite: University of Michigan

Nature, 2002, vol. 415, issue 6875, 997-1000

Abstract: Abstract Io leaves a magnetic footprint on Jupiter's upper atmosphere that appears as a spot of ultraviolet emission that remains fixed underneath Io as Jupiter rotates1,2,3. The specific physical mechanisms responsible for generating those emissions are not well understood, but in general the spot seems to arise because of an electromagnetic interaction between Jupiter's magnetic field and the plasma surrounding Io, driving currents of around 1 million amperes down through Jupiter's ionosphere4,5,6. The other galilean satellites may also leave footprints, and the presence or absence of such footprints should illuminate the underlying physical mechanism by revealing the strengths of the currents linking the satellites to Jupiter. Here we report persistent, faint, far-ultraviolet emission from the jovian footprints of Ganymede and Europa. We also show that Io's magnetic footprint extends well beyond the immediate vicinity of Io's flux-tube interaction with Jupiter, and much farther than predicted theoretically4,5,6; the emission persists for several hours downstream. We infer from these data that Ganymede and Europa have persistent interactions with Jupiter's magnetic field despite their thin atmospheres.

Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/415997a Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:415:y:2002:i:6875:d:10.1038_415997a

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/415997a

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().