{"id":8733,"date":"2023-01-10T10:16:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T15:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=8733"},"modified":"2023-01-10T10:16:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T15:16:49","slug":"swri-scientists-find-evidence-for-magnetic-reconnection-between-ganymede-and-jupiter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=8733","title":{"rendered":"SwRI Scientists Find Evidence for Magnetic Reconnection Between Ganymede and Jupiter"},"content":{"rendered":"
In June 2021, NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft flew close to Ganymede, Jupiter\u2019s largest moon, observing evidence of magnetic reconnection. An SwRI-led team used Juno data to characterize the magnetic topology and electron flow direction for two different reconnection scenarios at Ganymede\u2019s magnetopause. The yellow dashed line indicates Juno\u2019s trajectory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In June 2021, NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft flew close to Ganymede, Jupiter\u2019<\/span>s largest moon, observing evidence of magnetic reconnection. A team led by Southwest Research Institute used Juno data to examine the electron and ion particles and magnetic fields as the magnetic field lines of Jupiter and Ganymede merged, snapped and reoriented, heating and accelerating the charged particles in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cGanymede is the only moon in our solar system with its own magnetic field,\u201d said Juno Principal Investigator Dr. Scott Bolton of SwRI. \u201cThe snapping and reconnecting of Ganymede\u2019s magnetic field lines with Jupiter\u2019s creates the magnetospheric fireworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnetic reconnection is an explosive physical process that converts stored magnetic energy into kinetic energy and heat. Ganymede\u2019s mini magnetosphere interacts with Jupiter\u2019s massive magnetosphere, in the magnetopause, the boundary between the two regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe interpreted the presence of accelerated electrons traveling along the magnetic field at Ganymede\u2019s magnetopause as evidence that magnetic reconnection was occurring there during the Juno flyby,\u201d said Dr. Robert Ebert, lead author of a Geophysical Research Letters<\/em> paper<\/a> describing the findings. \u201cThese observations further support the notion that magnetic reconnection at Ganymede\u2019s magnetopause can be a driver of dynamic processes in the local space environment around this moon of Jupiter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SwRI-developed Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) aboard Juno observed enhanced electron fluxes, including accelerated, magnetic field-aligned electrons. Reconnection as observed by Juno is thought to be related to the generation of Ganymede\u2019s aurora.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accelerated electrons observed by JADE are similar to those observed by NASA\u2019s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MSS) spacecraft during reconnection at the Earth\u2019s magnetopause,\u201d said Dr. Stephen Fuselier, a co-author of the paper. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the exciting results from the Ganymede flyby: Despite the vast differences between Ganymede and Earth, we find commonality in the universal process of magnetic reconnection.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Juno flyby, the SwRI-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) observed Ganymede\u2019s auroral emissions, which are expected to be produced by electrons accelerated via magnetic reconnection. SwRI has built two additional UVS instruments to operate in Jupiter orbit aboard ESA\u2019s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft and NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper. The European Space Agency\u2019s JUICE mission is scheduled to launch in April 2023 and arrive at Jupiter in 2031. NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch in October 2024 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is simple \u2014 or small \u2014 when you have the biggest planet in the solar system as your neighbor,\u201d said Thomas Greathouse, a Juno scientist from SwRI. \u201cThis was the first measurement of this complicated interaction at Ganymede. This gives us a very early tantalizing taste of the information we expect to learn from ESA\u2019s JUICE mission.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In June 2021, NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft flew close to Ganymede, Jupiter\u2019s largest moon, observing evidence of magnetic reconnection. A team led by Southwest Research Institute used Juno data to examine the electron and ion particles and magnetic fields as the magnetic field lines of Jupiter and Ganymede merged, snapped and reoriented, heating and accelerating the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":8735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/earimediaprodweb.azurewebsites.net\/Api\/v1\/Multimedia\/bf91e21f-1ddb-49c7-bc08-d7ba184a0edc\/Rendition\/low-res\/Content\/Public","fifu_image_alt":"SwRI Scientists Find Evidence for Magnetic Reconnection Between Ganymede and Jupiter","footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8734,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8733\/revisions\/8734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}