Hubble captures images of the northern lights Jupiter

                     

Shortly before the arrival of the Juno spacecraft to Jupiter's orbit, the Hubble telescope has captured stunning images of the planet's northern aurora.

"It was one of the most dramatic demonstrations that have seen the phenomenon," said Jonathan Nichols of the University of Leicester, UK. He is one of the scientists behind the research on the largest planet in the solar system.

"It seems that Jupiter was dropping fireworks to celebrate the arrival of Juno" he said during a press conference yesterday (30). The unmanned spacecraft will reach the planet's orbit next Monday (4).

The auroras were photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope during a series of observations made with ultraviolet light. Unlike the phenomena that occur on Earth, Jupiter is uninterrupted and more energy.

The observations made by Hubble and the ship Juno should help scientists understand how the Sun works to generate auroras on Jupiter and other phenomena which interfere with the magnetic field of the planet.