For years, scientists have struggled to explain why the temperatures of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere are comparable to those found at Earth.
They should be significantly lower, given that the gas giant is five times further from the sun.
But, researchers from Boston University (BU) appear to have come up with an answer.
The scientists believe that the planet’s infamous Great Red Spot, a hurricane three times larger than Earth, pumps out heat into its atmosphere.
To identify the elusive heat source, astronomers designed observations to monitor the infra-red light 500 miles higher than the planet’s rim.
The team was searching for anomalies when they registered a high altitude temperature at certain latitudes and longitudes in the planet’s southern hemisphere.
Dr. James O’Donoghue, research scientist at BU, and lead author of the study, said: “We could see almost immediately that our maximum temperatures at high altitudes were above the Great Red Spot far below ― a weird coincidence or a major clue?”
The Great Red Spot produces two types of turbulent energy waves that collide and heat the upper atmosphere, the study concluded. Waves of gravity clash with acoustic waves, according to the research.
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Art by Karen Teramura, UH IfA with James OâDonoghue and Luke Moore
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is one of the most curious features of our solar system.
It was discovered just years after Galileo invented telescopic astronomy in the 17th century and is believed to be a perpetual hurricane. Winds within the storm take six days to complete one spin.
Energy transfer to the upper atmosphere from below has been simulated for planetary atmospheres, but not yet backed up by observations,” O’Donoghue said. “The extremely high temperatures observed above the storm appear to be the ‘smoking gun’ of this energy transfer, indicating that planet-wide heating is a plausible explanation for the ‘energy crisis.’ “
The discovery has implications for gas planet within and outside our solar system. Saturn, Uranus and Neptune all have unusually hot atmospheres.
Jupiter is a giant ball of gas that’s 11 times wider than Earth and some 300 times more massive.
It takes 12 years for Jupiter to orbit the sun and yet rotates so quickly that a single day lasts just 10 hours.
In many ways Jupiter has its own small solar system. Its composition is very similar to that of a star: hydrogen and helium, while its sheer size means that it has four large moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) and over 60 smaller objects known to be in orbit.
While you can’t normally see them, Jupiter also has a huge system of rings much like Saturn.
Jupiter probe
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(From L) Diane Brown, NASA Juno program executive, Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator, Juno Project manager Rick Nybakken and Guy Beutelschies, Lockheed Martin director of space exploration, celebrate at a press conference after the Juno spacecraft was successfully placed into Jupiter's orbit, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California on July 4, 2016.Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on August 5, 2011 on a five-year voyage to its mission to study the planet's formation, evolution and structure. / AFP / Robyn BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:ROBYN BECK via Getty Images)
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PASADENA, CA - JULY 4: In this NASA handout, From left to right: Dr. Jim Green, Planetary Science Division Director, NASA; Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute; Geoff Yoder, acting Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA; Michael Watkins, director, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); and Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); celebrate with others on the Juno team after they received confirmation from the spacecraft that it had successfully completed the engine burn and entered orbit of Jupiter on July 4, 2016 in Pasadena, CA. The Juno mission launched August 5, 2011 and will orbit the planet for 20 months to collect data on the planetary core, map the magnetic field, and measure the amount of water and ammonia in the atmosphere. (Photo by Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images)MANDATORY CREDIT: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)Disposition: AFS 8/101 - Permanent (credit:Handout via Getty Images)
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(From R) Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager, Scott Bolton, NASA principal investigator for the Juno mission to Jupiter and Jim Green, NASA director of Planetary Science, react as the Juno spacecraft successfully enters Jupiter's orbit on July 4, 2016, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on August 5, 2011 on a five-year voyage to its mission to study the planet's formation, evolution and structure. / AFP / POOL / Ringo Chiu (Photo credit should read RINGO CHIU/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:RINGO CHIU via Getty Images)
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Staff members watch on before the solar-powered Juno spacecraft went into orbit around Jupiter, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California on July 4, 2016. Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on August 5, 2011 on a five-year voyage to its mission to study the planet's formation, evolution and structure. / AFP / POOL / Ringo Chiu (Photo credit should read RINGO CHIU/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:RINGO CHIU via Getty Images)