The northern lights in Neptune. The phenomenon was captured for the first time

In the new photos from the James Webb (JWST) space telescope, it was first possible to capture northern lights on Neptune. The telescope noticed this infrared phenomenon. They are made up of “exotic” molecules, known as three -wave cations. The results of the study were published on March 26 in the scientific journal “Nature”.

The auroras arise when the energetic, charged particles rushing from the sun are caught in the magnetic field of the planet. This field directs particles towards the magnetic poles of the planet, there they collide with gases in the atmosphere, and consequently lead to lighting.

Unlike the auroras on Earth, which occur in the extreme northern and southern latitudes near the north and southern pole of our planet, aurora in Neptune appears near the medium latitudes of the planet. Why is this happening? Neptune's magnetic field is 47 degrees tilted from its rotation axis. On this planet, her magnetic poles are located between geographical poles and the equator, which is about where South America would be on the ground.

Unlike the northern lights, the auroras of Neptune are not visible to the naked eye.

– It turned out that imaging of the activities aurora in Neptune was only possible thanks to the sensitivity of the webba telescope in close infrared – said Henrik Melin, a planetary scientist at Northumbria University in Great Britain. – It was so stunning. I saw not only auroras, the details and clarity of the signature really shocked me.

Scientists identified the auroras on other planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus over 30 years ago, but this phenomenon has not been detected in Neptune.

The achievements of James Webb's telescope are a continuation of what the Voyager 2 mission began. Unfortunately, the probe during the flight near Neptune in 1989 was not equipped in the right way to register three -century cations testifying to aurora.

Now thanks to JWST, these molecules have been detected, but scientists have registered something interesting. It turned out that the top layer of the planet's atmosphere in several decades cooled down. Low temperatures can be the reason why scientists have not yet been detected by three -wave cations in Neptune. The northern lights seem much weaker at low temperatures, and the light reflecting from the clouds of the planet could drown them out, the researchers say.