This image of Jupiter's aurora was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on November 26, 1998. This ultraviolet view of the auroral oval is centered on Jupiter's magnetic north pole. Charged particles, moving at high speeds along Jupiter's magnetic field lines, collide with gases in the planet's atmosphere. Energy from the collisions generates the auroral lights. Since some of Jupiter's moons orbit inside its magnetosphere, the moons alter particle flows along the planet's magnetic field lines. This creates "footprints" or tracks of those moons in the aurora, three of which are visible in this image. The footprint of Io appears as a bright dot and "tail" along the far left edge of this view; the dimmer dots of the footprints of Ganymede and Europa (to the right of and beneath Ganymede's) are towards the bottom center of the image.
Image courtesy NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and John Clarke (University of Michigan).

Sometimes on Earth we can see pretty light shows in the sky called the Northern Lights or the Southern Lights. These light shows are also called the aurora. Guess what? Earth isn't the only planet with aurora! This picture shows the aurora around the North Pole of the planet Jupiter. The Hubble Space Telescope took the picture in 1998. The aurora form a ring or oval around Jupiter's pole. What makes the aurora? Charged particles zoom along Jupiter's magnetic field lines. When the particles crash into gases in Jupiter's atmosphere, they give off light. That light is the aurora!
Image courtesy NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and John Clarke (University of Michigan).

Sometimes on Earth we can see pretty light shows in the sky called the Northern Lights or the Southern Lights. These light shows are also called the aurora. Guess what? Earth isn't the only planet with aurora! This picture shows the aurora around the North Pole of the planet Jupiter. The Hubble Space Telescope took the picture in 1998. The aurora form a ring or oval around Jupiter's pole. What makes the aurora? Charged particles zoom along Jupiter's magnetic field lines. When the particles crash into gases in Jupiter's atmosphere, they give off light. That light is the aurora!
Image courtesy NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and John Clarke (University of Michigan).

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