[HN Gopher] Jupiter's energy crisis solved: Auroras roast upper ...
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       Jupiter's energy crisis solved: Auroras roast upper atmosphere
        
       Author : wglb
       Score  : 40 points
       Date   : 2021-09-13 16:49 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (earthsky.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (earthsky.org)
        
       | Jun8 wrote:
       | " Based solely on Jupiter's distance from the sun, its upper
       | atmosphere should be about -100 F (-73 C). But observations show
       | Jupiter's upper atmosphere instead soars to temperatures of 800 F
       | (426 C)."
       | 
       | Many have thought about life in the upper parts of Jupiter's
       | atmosphere (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_in_fiction).
       | There's some water, it's hot, and the super lightning bolts add
       | extra energy. The main problem it seems for small microorganisms
       | is staying at the hospitable height:
       | https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/jupiter/atmosphere?show=hs_...
       | 
       | If there's some sort of pocket/eddy that keeps a portion of the
       | atmosphere at constant height continuously that might be a
       | suitable place for early life.
        
       | criticaltinker wrote:
       | There's a wide body of scientific evidence supporting the fact
       | that electromagnetic forces have a significant impact at many
       | scales throughout the solar system and cosmos. It has been
       | observed, since at least the early 70s, that the Sun's electric
       | field induces auroras, radiation belts [0], and convection in
       | planetary magnetospheres [1][2]. The OP title might be a little
       | sensational by calling this an energy crisis - but the photos of
       | the heat bands were really interesting IMO.
       | 
       | I admire movements like the Electric Universe Theory [3] for
       | spreading awareness of plasma cosmology, magnetohydrodynamics,
       | etc. I think in the future there will be an ecosystem around
       | solar space weather, [4] is an example of such.
       | 
       | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/RG00...
       | 
       | [2]
       | https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700002717/downloads/19...
       | 
       | [3] https://www.electricuniverse.info/peer-reviewed-papers/
       | 
       | [4] https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
        
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       (page generated 2021-09-15 23:00 UTC)