A study of Jupiter's auroral X-rays
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system, with a strong magnetic field and dramatic auroral emissions in several wavelengths including UV and X-ray. This project will focus on the use of space telescopes including Chandra to observe Jupiter's X-ray emissions and understand their intensity, how they are spread around the poles of the planet, and whether they may pulse with any particular periodicity. All of these features (brightness, morphology, periodicity) can then be used to probe the underlying physics of how these X-rays are generated. The observations from remote space telescopes can be compared to data from spacecraft such as Juno which orbit Jupiter and sample the properties of its magnetic environment (magnetosphere) directly.
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST/R505080/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2021 | |||
| 2115044 | Studentship | ST/R505080/1 | 01/10/2018 | 28/03/2022 | Dale Weigt |
| ST/S505705/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/09/2022 | |||
| 2115044 | Studentship | ST/S505705/1 | 01/10/2018 | 28/03/2022 | Dale Weigt |
| Description | The driver of the jovian auroral X-ray emissions still remain a mystery in the field today, mainly due to the complex morphological and temporal behaviour observed over the course of ~20 years, as observed from X-ray telescopes like Chandra. This work has managed to contribute to this ongoing effort by developing a novel mapping pipeline to map the X-ray emissions onto Jupiter, helping aid the work of this award and future studies. Development and application of this pipeline has: (a) detected a unique, more elongated morphology of the X-ray auroral emissions during a solar compression; (b) analysed the typical and more extreme morphological behaviour of the northern emissions from 20 years worth of Chandra data; (c) the sparsity of pulsations found within the X-ray auroral emissions and (d) constraining the potential drivers of the auroral emissions to two distinct regions in Jupiter's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere. The mapping has also been used on Saturn in an attempt to detect and map potential X-ray auroral emissions for the first time as Saturn was immersed in Jupiter's magnetosphere. |
| Exploitation Route | The mapping algorithm can be easily adapted to observe X-ray emissions from solar system objects. The behaviour of jovian auroral emissions is also a useful laboratory to compare and contrast pulsed X-ray emissions from objects outside our solar system, such as low-mass X-ray binaries and pulsars. |
| Sectors | Education,Other |
| Title | Release of python sso freeze and go chandra for analysing jovian X-rays from Chandra |
| Description | Mapping algorithm designed to perform coordinate transformations to Chandra X-ray photons from a planetary body, such as Jupiter, to allow the user to map their positions onto the surface. The algorithm calculates the intensity and position of the emissions using properties of the Chandra instrument, |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | N/A |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5654904 |