With the help of NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, a UCL-led research team found that solar storms have triggered Jupiter’s intense ‘Northern Lights’ by producing a new X-ray aurora that is eight times brighter compared to normal and hundreds times more energetic in comparison to Earth’s aurora borealis.

This is for the first time ever that Jupiter's X-ray aurora has been analyzed during the arrival of a huge storm from the Sun at the planet.

The striking findings go together well with NASA's Juno mission this summer which is looking forward to understand the link between the two largest structures in the solar system, including the area of space managed by Jupiter's magnetic field and the region under the control of solar wind.

Lead author and PhD student at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, William Dunn, explained that there is an ongoing power struggle between Jupiter's magnetosphere and solar winds. Dunn said that they want to understand the interaction between them and the impact it has on planet.

Dunn added, “By studying how aurora changes, we can discover more about region of space controlled by Jupiter's magnetic field, and if or how this is influenced by Sun. Understanding this relationship is important for countless magnetic objects across galaxy, including exoplanets, brown dwarfs and neutron stars”.

The Sun continually releases streams of particles in space through the solar wind. At the time of giant storm eruptions, the winds turn quite stronger and squeeze magnetosphere of the planet, moving its boundary along with the solar wind two million kilometers across the space.

According to the study, this interaction at the boundary prompts the high-energy X-rays in Jupiter's Northern Lights, spanning over an area larger than the Earth’s surface.