NASA
NASA Goes Live on Twitch: Design Artemis II Moon Mascot
NASA will host a live Twitch event to highlight the ongoing Moon Mascot Challenge, which invites the public to design a zero gravity indicator for the agency’s Artemis II crewed test flight around the Moon. Viewers will have the opportunity to provide real-time input to an artist who will create an example of a zero gravity indicator during the livestream.
Zero gravity indicators are small, plush items carried aboard spacecraft to provide a visual indication of when the crew reaches space.
The event will begin at 3 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 13, on the agency’s official Twitch channel:
The contest invites global creators of all ages to submit design ideas for a zero gravity indicator that will fly aboard the agency’s Artemis II test flight, the first crewed mission under NASA’s Artemis campaign.
Up to 25 finalists, including entries from a K-12 student division, will be selected. The Artemis II crew will choose one design that NASA’s Thermal Blanket Lab will fabricate to fly alongside the crew in the Orion spacecraft.
During this Twitch event, NASA experts will discuss the Moon Mascot Challenge while the artist incorporates live audience feedback into a sample design. Although the design example will not be eligible for the contest, it will demonstrate how challenge participants can develop their own zero gravity indicator designs. The example will be shared on the @NASAArtemis social media accounts following the Twitch event.
The Artemis II test flight will take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back. The mission is another step toward missions on the lunar surface to help the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.
To learn more about NASA’s missions, visit:
-end-
Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
NASA Goes Live on Twitch: Design Artemis II Moon Mascot
NASA will host a live Twitch event to highlight the ongoing Moon Mascot Challenge, which invites the public to design a zero gravity indicator for the agency’s Artemis II crewed test flight around the Moon. Viewers will have the opportunity to provide real-time input to an artist who will create an example of a zero gravity indicator during the livestream.
Zero gravity indicators are small, plush items carried aboard spacecraft to provide a visual indication of when the crew reaches space.
The event will begin at 3 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 13, on the agency’s official Twitch channel:
The contest invites global creators of all ages to submit design ideas for a zero gravity indicator that will fly aboard the agency’s Artemis II test flight, the first crewed mission under NASA’s Artemis campaign.
Up to 25 finalists, including entries from a K-12 student division, will be selected. The Artemis II crew will choose one design that NASA’s Thermal Blanket Lab will fabricate to fly alongside the crew in the Orion spacecraft.
During this Twitch event, NASA experts will discuss the Moon Mascot Challenge while the artist incorporates live audience feedback into a sample design. Although the design example will not be eligible for the contest, it will demonstrate how challenge participants can develop their own zero gravity indicator designs. The example will be shared on the @NASAArtemis social media accounts following the Twitch event.
The Artemis II test flight will take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back. The mission is another step toward missions on the lunar surface to help the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.
To learn more about NASA’s missions, visit:
-end-
Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
NASA’s Europa Clipper Captures Mars in Infrared
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This picture of Mars is a composite of several images captured by Europa Clipper’s thermal imager on March 1. Bright regions are relatively warm, with temperatures of about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). Darker areas are colder. The darkest region at the top is the northern polar cap and is about minus 190 F (minus 125 C).NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUHeaded for Jupiter’s moon Europa, the spacecraft did some sightseeing, using a flyby of Mars to calibrate its infrared imaging instrument.
On its recent swing by Mars, NASA’s Europa Clipper took the opportunity to capture infrared images of the Red Planet. The data will help mission scientists calibrate the spacecraft’s thermal imaging instrument so they can be sure it’s operating correctly when Europa Clipper arrives at the Jupiter system in 2030.
The mission’s sights are set on Jupiter’s moon Europa and the global ocean hidden under its icy surface. A year after slipping into orbit around Jupiter, Europa Clipper will begin a series of 49 close flybys of the moon to investigate whether it holds conditions suitable for life.
A key element of that investigation will be thermal imaging — global scans of Europa that map temperatures to shed light on how active the surface is. Infrared imaging will reveal how much heat is being emitted from the moon; warmer areas of the ice give off more energy and indicate recent activity.
The imaging also will tell scientists where the ocean is closest to the surface. Europa is crisscrossed by dramatic ridges and fractures, which scientists believe are caused by ocean convection pulling apart the icy crust and water rising up to fill the gaps.
This picture of Mars is a colorized composite of several images captured by Europa Clipper’s thermal imager. Warm colors represent relatively warm temperatures; red areas are about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius), and purple regions are about minus 190 F (minus 125 C).NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU“We want to measure the temperature of those features,” said Arizona State University’s Phil Christensen, principal investigator of Europa Clipper’s infrared camera, called the Europa Thermal Imaging System (E-THEMIS). “If Europa is a really active place, those fractures will be warmer than the surrounding ice where the ocean comes close to the surface. Or if water erupted onto the surface hundreds to thousands of years ago, then those surfaces could still be relatively warm.”
Why Mars
On March 1, Europa Clipper flew just 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the surface of Mars in order to use the planet’s gravitational pull to reshape the spacecraft’s trajectory. Ultimately, the assist will get the mission to Jupiter faster than if it made a beeline for the gas giant, but the flyby also offered a critical opportunity for Europa Clipper to test E-THEMIS.
For about 18 minutes on March 1, the instrument captured one image per second, yielding more than a thousand grayscale pictures that were transmitted to Earth starting on May 5. After compiling these images into a global snapshot of Mars, scientists applied color, using hues with familiar associations: Warm areas are depicted in red, while colder areas are shown as blue.
By comparing E-THEMIS images with those made from established Mars data, scientists can judge how well the instrument is working.
“We wanted no surprises in these new images,” Christensen said. “The goal was to capture imagery of a planetary body we know extraordinarily well and make sure the dataset looks exactly the way it should, based on 20 years of instruments documenting Mars.”
NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter, launched in 2001, carries a sister instrument named THEMIS that has been capturing its own thermal images of the Red Planet for decades. To be extra thorough, the Odyssey team collected thermal images of Mars before, during, and after Europa Clipper’s flyby so that Europa scientists can compare the visuals as an additional gauge of how well E-THEMIS is calibrated.
Europa Clipper also took advantage of the close proximity to Mars to test all the components of its radar instrument in unison for the first time. The radar antennas and the wavelengths they produce are so long that it wasn’t possible for engineers to can do that in a clean room before launch. The radar data will be returned and analyzed in the coming weeks and months, but preliminary assessments of the real-time telemetry indicate that the test went well.
To leverage the flyby even further, the science team took the opportunity to ensure that the spacecraft’s telecommunication equipment will be able to conduct gravity experiments at Europa. By transmitting signals to Earth while passing through Mars’ gravity field, they were able to confirm that a similar operation is expected to work at Europa.
Europa Clipper launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 14, 2024, via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, embarking on a 1.8 billion-mile (2.9 billion-kilometer) journey to Jupiter, which is five times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Now that the probe has harnessed the gravity of Mars, its next gravity assist will be from Earth in 2026.
Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Find more information about Europa Clipper here:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper/
News Media Contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
2025-065
Share Details Last Updated May 12, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 3 min read Dave Gallagher Named 11th Director of JPL as Laurie Leshin Steps Down Article 6 days ago 6 min read NASA’s SPHEREx Space Telescope Begins Capturing Entire Sky Article 2 weeks ago 4 min read Robots, Rovers, and Regolith: NASA Brings Exploration to FIRST Robotics 2025 Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsMissions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
NASA’s Europa Clipper Captures Mars in Infrared
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This picture of Mars is a composite of several images captured by Europa Clipper’s thermal imager on March 1. Bright regions are relatively warm, with temperatures of about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). Darker areas are colder. The darkest region at the top is the northern polar cap and is about minus 190 F (minus 125 C).NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUHeaded for Jupiter’s moon Europa, the spacecraft did some sightseeing, using a flyby of Mars to calibrate its infrared imaging instrument.
On its recent swing by Mars, NASA’s Europa Clipper took the opportunity to capture infrared images of the Red Planet. The data will help mission scientists calibrate the spacecraft’s thermal imaging instrument so they can be sure it’s operating correctly when Europa Clipper arrives at the Jupiter system in 2030.
The mission’s sights are set on Jupiter’s moon Europa and the global ocean hidden under its icy surface. A year after slipping into orbit around Jupiter, Europa Clipper will begin a series of 49 close flybys of the moon to investigate whether it holds conditions suitable for life.
A key element of that investigation will be thermal imaging — global scans of Europa that map temperatures to shed light on how active the surface is. Infrared imaging will reveal how much heat is being emitted from the moon; warmer areas of the ice give off more energy and indicate recent activity.
The imaging also will tell scientists where the ocean is closest to the surface. Europa is crisscrossed by dramatic ridges and fractures, which scientists believe are caused by ocean convection pulling apart the icy crust and water rising up to fill the gaps.
This picture of Mars is a colorized composite of several images captured by Europa Clipper’s thermal imager. Warm colors represent relatively warm temperatures; red areas are about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius), and purple regions are about minus 190 F (minus 125 C).NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU“We want to measure the temperature of those features,” said Arizona State University’s Phil Christensen, principal investigator of Europa Clipper’s infrared camera, called the Europa Thermal Imaging System (E-THEMIS). “If Europa is a really active place, those fractures will be warmer than the surrounding ice where the ocean comes close to the surface. Or if water erupted onto the surface hundreds to thousands of years ago, then those surfaces could still be relatively warm.”
Why Mars
On March 1, Europa Clipper flew just 550 miles (884 kilometers) above the surface of Mars in order to use the planet’s gravitational pull to reshape the spacecraft’s trajectory. Ultimately, the assist will get the mission to Jupiter faster than if it made a beeline for the gas giant, but the flyby also offered a critical opportunity for Europa Clipper to test E-THEMIS.
For about 18 minutes on March 1, the instrument captured one image per second, yielding more than a thousand grayscale pictures that were transmitted to Earth starting on May 5. After compiling these images into a global snapshot of Mars, scientists applied color, using hues with familiar associations: Warm areas are depicted in red, while colder areas are shown as blue.
By comparing E-THEMIS images with those made from established Mars data, scientists can judge how well the instrument is working.
“We wanted no surprises in these new images,” Christensen said. “The goal was to capture imagery of a planetary body we know extraordinarily well and make sure the dataset looks exactly the way it should, based on 20 years of instruments documenting Mars.”
NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter, launched in 2001, carries a sister instrument named THEMIS that has been capturing its own thermal images of the Red Planet for decades. To be extra thorough, the Odyssey team collected thermal images of Mars before, during, and after Europa Clipper’s flyby so that Europa scientists can compare the visuals as an additional gauge of how well E-THEMIS is calibrated.
Europa Clipper also took advantage of the close proximity to Mars to test all the components of its radar instrument in unison for the first time. The radar antennas and the wavelengths they produce are so long that it wasn’t possible for engineers to can do that in a clean room before launch. The radar data will be returned and analyzed in the coming weeks and months, but preliminary assessments of the real-time telemetry indicate that the test went well.
To leverage the flyby even further, the science team took the opportunity to ensure that the spacecraft’s telecommunication equipment will be able to conduct gravity experiments at Europa. By transmitting signals to Earth while passing through Mars’ gravity field, they were able to confirm that a similar operation is expected to work at Europa.
Europa Clipper launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 14, 2024, via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, embarking on a 1.8 billion-mile (2.9 billion-kilometer) journey to Jupiter, which is five times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Now that the probe has harnessed the gravity of Mars, its next gravity assist will be from Earth in 2026.
Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Find more information about Europa Clipper here:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper/
News Media Contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
2025-065
Share Details Last Updated May 12, 2025 Related Terms Explore More 3 min read Dave Gallagher Named 11th Director of JPL as Laurie Leshin Steps Down Article 5 days ago 6 min read NASA’s SPHEREx Space Telescope Begins Capturing Entire Sky Article 2 weeks ago 4 min read Robots, Rovers, and Regolith: NASA Brings Exploration to FIRST Robotics 2025 Article 2 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsMissions
Humans in Space
Climate Change
Solar System
NASA Ames Stars of the Month: May 2025
The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Dennis Leveson-Gower and Laura Iraci. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and collaborative disposition needed to explore this world and beyond.
Space Biosciences Star: Dennis Leveson-GowerDennis Leveson-Gower, Assistant Branch Chief of Bioengineering, has contributed to numerous projects and payloads within the Space Biosciences Division since 2012. He is recognized for exceptional leadership, operational excellence, and strategic collaboration that have advanced the Bioengineering Branch and strengthened partnerships with commercial spaceflight organizations.
Earth Science Star: Laura IraciLaura Iraci is a Senior Research Scientist in the Atmospheric Science Branch. She is recognized for her outstanding scientific leadership and her impactful role as a mentor. As head of the Trace Gas Group, Laura develops and deploys custom atmospheric sampling and remote sensing instrumentation for critical NASA suborbital and spaceflight missions, including major airborne science field campaigns. She is equally dedicated to mentoring early-career researchers, with many advancing into highly productive staff positions at NASA.
NASA Ames Stars of the Month: May 2025
The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Dennis Leveson-Gower and Laura Iraci. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and collaborative disposition needed to explore this world and beyond.
Space Biosciences Star: Dennis Leveson-GowerDennis Leveson-Gower, Assistant Branch Chief of Bioengineering, has contributed to numerous projects and payloads within the Space Biosciences Division since 2012. He is recognized for exceptional leadership, operational excellence, and strategic collaboration that have advanced the Bioengineering Branch and strengthened partnerships with commercial spaceflight organizations.
Earth Science Star: Laura IraciLaura Iraci is a Senior Research Scientist in the Atmospheric Science Branch. She is recognized for her outstanding scientific leadership and her impactful role as a mentor. As head of the Trace Gas Group, Laura develops and deploys custom atmospheric sampling and remote sensing instrumentation for critical NASA suborbital and spaceflight missions, including major airborne science field campaigns. She is equally dedicated to mentoring early-career researchers, with many advancing into highly productive staff positions at NASA.
5 Tips to Craft a Standout NASA Internship Application
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Four NASA interns pose in front of the NASA Pavilion at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, an annual airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.NASAA NASA internship provides a stellar opportunity to launch your future as part of America’s aerospace workforce. NASA interns take on meaningful work and contribute to exciting agency projects with the guidance of a supportive mentor. The internship program regularly ranks as the nation’s most prestigious and competition is steep: in fiscal year 2024, NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement selected nearly 1,800 interns out of 38,000 applicants.
To give you the best shot at a NASA internship, we’ve compiled a list of tips mentors say can make an application stand out from the crowd. It is NASA’s mentors who create internship project descriptions, review applications, and take the lead in choosing candidates to work on their specific internship projects. Here’s what they had to say:
1. Your personal statement is your chance to make a lasting impression.Mentors pay close attention to personal statements to identify the best candidate for their project and team. A powerful personal statement combines core content, such as personal background and goals, with content tailored to the needs of the project.
NASA mentors are looking for interns who will enjoy the work and fit in with the team culture. Beyond your academic background, grades, and interests, this is your chance to share your curiosity, enthusiasm, passion, or resilience. Show us who you are and what you can do!
2. Show off your academic achievements.Mentors love to see what academic expertise and hands-on experience you can bring to the internship project. Your resume, transcripts, grade point average, coursework, research, academic projects, awards, and accomplishments are valuable highlights in your application.
3. Tell us about your extracurriculars, too!Who are you outside the classroom?
Mentors like to see well-rounded candidates whose interests take them beyond their chosen academic and career path. Include any extracurricular activities you participate in, such as a club or team at school or an organization in your community. Whether you’re involved in a local rocketry club, a school athletic team, or a music ensemble, these pursuits may demonstrate academic skills or soft skills such as collaboration. Shared hobbies can also be a great point of personal connection with a future mentor.
4. Include as many of your skills as possible.You have valuable skills you can bring to an internship project! These could be technical skills, such as experience with specific tools or computer programming languages, and non-technical skills, which may include communications skills or leadership experience. Mentors search for skills that meet their project requirements, so the more of your skills you share on your application, the better your chances of matching with the role.
5. Give yourself a chance.Don’t count yourself out before you get started! If you have a passion for spaceflight or aviation, it’s worth applying for a NASA internship – even if you’re not a math, science, engineering, or technology major. That’s because NASA achieves its exploration goals with the support of a nationwide team with a wide variety of skills: communicators, creatives, business specialists, legal experts, and so many more. Take a look at NASA’s internship opportunities and you’ll find projects in many of these fields.
Yes, competition is fierce. But someone is going to land that internship – and that person could be you.
Learn More- Check eligibility requirements, see current deadlines, and launch your internship journey at https://intern.nasa.gov.
- Federal resumes don’t need to be limited to one page. Click here to find NASA resume tips.
5 Tips to Craft a Standout NASA Internship Application
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Four NASA interns pose in front of the NASA Pavilion at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, an annual airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.NASAA NASA internship provides a stellar opportunity to launch your future as part of America’s aerospace workforce. NASA interns take on meaningful work and contribute to exciting agency projects with the guidance of a supportive mentor. The internship program regularly ranks as the nation’s most prestigious and competition is steep: in fiscal year 2024, NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement selected nearly 1,800 interns out of 38,000 applicants.
To give you the best shot at a NASA internship, we’ve compiled a list of tips mentors say can make an application stand out from the crowd. It is NASA’s mentors who create internship project descriptions, review applications, and take the lead in choosing candidates to work on their specific internship projects. Here’s what they had to say:
1. Your personal statement is your chance to make a lasting impression.Mentors pay close attention to personal statements to identify the best candidate for their project and team. A powerful personal statement combines core content, such as personal background and goals, with content tailored to the needs of the project.
NASA mentors are looking for interns who will enjoy the work and fit in with the team culture. Beyond your academic background, grades, and interests, this is your chance to share your curiosity, enthusiasm, passion, or resilience. Show us who you are and what you can do!
2. Show off your academic achievements.Mentors love to see what academic expertise and hands-on experience you can bring to the internship project. Your resume, transcripts, grade point average, coursework, research, academic projects, awards, and accomplishments are valuable highlights in your application.
3. Tell us about your extracurriculars, too!Who are you outside the classroom?
Mentors like to see well-rounded candidates whose interests take them beyond their chosen academic and career path. Include any extracurricular activities you participate in, such as a club or team at school or an organization in your community. Whether you’re involved in a local rocketry club, a school athletic team, or a music ensemble, these pursuits may demonstrate academic skills or soft skills such as collaboration. Shared hobbies can also be a great point of personal connection with a future mentor.
4. Include as many of your skills as possible.You have valuable skills you can bring to an internship project! These could be technical skills, such as experience with specific tools or computer programming languages, and non-technical skills, which may include communications skills or leadership experience. Mentors search for skills that meet their project requirements, so the more of your skills you share on your application, the better your chances of matching with the role.
5. Give yourself a chance.Don’t count yourself out before you get started! If you have a passion for spaceflight or aviation, it’s worth applying for a NASA internship – even if you’re not a math, science, engineering, or technology major. That’s because NASA achieves its exploration goals with the support of a nationwide team with a wide variety of skills: communicators, creatives, business specialists, legal experts, and so many more. Take a look at NASA’s internship opportunities and you’ll find projects in many of these fields.
Yes, competition is fierce. But someone is going to land that internship – and that person could be you.
Learn More- Check eligibility requirements, see current deadlines, and launch your internship journey at https://intern.nasa.gov.
- Federal resumes don’t need to be limited to one page. Click here to find NASA resume tips.
NASA’s Webb Reveals New Details, Mysteries in Jupiter’s Aurora
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NASA, ESA, CSA, Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the auroras on our solar system’s largest planet. The dancing lights observed on Jupiter are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth. With Webb’s advanced sensitivity, astronomers have studied the phenomena to better understand Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
Auroras are created when high-energy particles enter a planet’s atmosphere near its magnetic poles and collide with atoms or molecules of gas. On Earth these are known as the Northern and Southern Lights. Not only are the auroras on Jupiter huge in size, they are also hundreds of times more energetic than those in Earth’s atmosphere. Earth’s auroras are caused by solar storms — when charged particles from the Sun rain down on the upper atmosphere, energize gases, and cause them to glow in shades of red, green and purple.
Image A: Close-up Observations of Auroras on Jupiter NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the auroras on our solar system’s largest planet. The dancing lights observed on Jupiter are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth.These observations of Jupiter’s auroras, taken at a wavelength of 3.36 microns (F335M) were captured with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on Dec. 25, 2023. Scientists found that the emission from trihydrogen cation, known as H3+, is far more variable than previously believed. H3+ is created by the impact of high energy electrons on molecular hydrogen. Because this emission shines brightly in the infrared, Webb’s instruments are well equipped to observe it. NASA, ESA, CSA, Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb)
Jupiter has an additional source for its auroras: The strong magnetic field of the gas giant grabs charged particles from its surroundings. This includes not only the charged particles within the solar wind but also the particles thrown into space by its orbiting moon Io, known for its numerous and large volcanoes. Io’s volcanoes spew particles that escape the moon’s gravity and orbit Jupiter. A barrage of charged particles unleashed by the Sun also reaches the planet. Jupiter’s large and powerful magnetic field captures all of the charged particles and accelerates them to tremendous speeds. These speedy particles slam into the planet’s atmosphere at high energies, which excites the gas and causes it to glow.
Image B: Pullout of Aurora Observations on Jupiter (NIRCam Image) These observations of Jupiter’s auroras (shown on the left of the above image) at 3.36 microns (F335M) were captured with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on Dec. 25, 2023. Scientists found that the emission from trihydrogen cation, known as H3+, is far more variable than previously believed. H3+ is created by the impact of high energy electrons on molecular hydrogen. Because this emission shines brightly in the infrared, Webb’s instruments are well equipped to observe it. The image on the right shows the planet Jupiter to indicate the location of the observed auroras, which was originally published in 2023. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb)Now, Webb’s unique capabilities are providing new insights into the auroras on Jupiter. The telescope’s sensitivity allows astronomers to capture fast-varying auroral features. New data was captured with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) Dec. 25, 2023, by a team of scientists led by Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.
“What a Christmas present it was – it just blew me away!” shared Nichols. “We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting them to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second.”
In particular, the team studied emission from the trihydrogen cation (H3+), which can be created in auroras. They found that this emission is far more variable than previously believed. The observations will help develop scientists’ understanding of how Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is heated and cooled.
The team also uncovered some unexplained observations in their data.
“What made these observations even more special is that we also took pictures simultaneously in the ultraviolet with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope,” added Nichols. “Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble’s pictures. This has left us scratching our heads. In order to cause the combination of brightness seen by both Webb and Hubble, we need to have a combination of high quantities of very low-energy particles hitting the atmosphere, which was previously thought to be impossible. We still don’t understand how this happens.”
Video: Webb Captures Jupiter’s Aurora NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a spectacular light show on Jupiter — an enormous display of auroras unlike anything seen on Earth. These infrared observations reveal unexpected activity in Jupiter’s atmosphere, challenging what scientists thought they knew about the planet’s magnetic field and particle interactions. Combined with ultraviolet data from Hubble, the results have raised surprising new questions about Jupiter’s extreme environment.Producer: Paul Morris. Writer: Thaddeus Cesari. Narrator: Professor Jonathan Nichols. Images: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Music Credit: “Zero Gravity” by Brice Davoli [SACEM] via Koka Media [SACEM], Universal Production Music France [SACEM], and Universal Production Music.
The team now plans to study this discrepancy between the Hubble and Webb data and to explore the wider implications for Jupiter’s atmosphere and space environment. They also intend to follow up this research with more Webb observations, which they can compare with data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft to better explore the cause of the enigmatic bright emission.
These results were published today in the journal Nature Communications.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit:
DownloadsClick any image to open a larger version.
View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
View/Download the research results from the journal Nature Communications.
Media ContactsLaura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Bethany Downer – Bethany.Downer@esawebb.org
ESA/Webb, Baltimore, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Read more: NASA’s Webb Captures Neptune’s Auroras for the First Time
Related For Kids En Español Keep Exploring Related Topics James Webb Space TelescopeWebb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
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NASA’s Juno spacecraft has explored Jupiter, its moons, and rings since 2016, gathering breakthrough science and breathtaking imagery.
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