Jupiter’s energy crisis solved: Auroras roast upper atmosphere | Hacker News Reader

Jupiter’s energy crisis solved: Auroras roast upper atmosphere

earthsky.org

66 pointswglb9 comments

“ Based solely on Jupiter’s distance from the sun, its upper atmosphere should be about -100 F (-73 C). But observations show Jupiter’s upper atmosphere instead soars to temperatures of 800 F (426 C).”

Many have thought about life in the upper parts of Jupiter’s atmosphere (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_in_fiction). There’s some water, it’s hot, and the super lightning bolts add extra energy. The main problem it seems for small microorganisms is staying at the hospitable height: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/jupiter/atmosphere?show=hs_...

If there’s some sort of pocket/eddy that keeps a portion of the atmosphere at constant height continuously that might be a suitable place for early life.

Probably ignorant question but, from a thermodynamic perspective does this mean that the planet captures more solar energy because of magnetic interactions with solar wind particles than is predicted purely from electromagnetic radiation?

There's a longstanding concern that the physics of electrical currents in large-scale plasmas (at solar system, interstellar, even intergalactic scales!) and corresponding magnetic fields — in sheets and filaments, which organize spontaneously according to the laws of nature, and involve powerful long-range interactions between them — has not received the attention it should, primarily because during the many decades in which the current "majority mindshare" astrophysics evolved, it was extremely difficult to attempt to model/test those concerns, with respect to both extreme computational complexity (super computers needed) and the fact such interactions don't readily boil down to simple/er models, which are easier for humans to iterate upon.

In effect, many astronomical observations are analyzed through a conceptual lens that reduces cause-effect to gravitation and resulting heat, i.e. something "sparkling in x-rays" must be accounted for by acceleration ultimately caused by gravity, or an explosion resulting from extreme gravity.

Dunno why but I love the phrase "Roast Jupiter" sounds like it would taste really nice

Interesting. I guess the appeal of "Roast Jupiter" might be related to (what SMBC calls) the Detroit rule [1]. Or the logical next step after the Deep-fried Mars bar.

[1] https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-10-25

Oh, thats great haha.

There's a wide body of scientific evidence supporting the fact that electromagnetic forces have a significant impact at many scales throughout the solar system and cosmos. It has been observed, since at least the early 70s, that the Sun's electric field induces auroras, radiation belts [0], and convection in planetary magnetospheres [1][2]. The OP title might be a little sensational by calling this an energy crisis - but the photos of the heat bands were really interesting IMO.

I admire movements like the Electric Universe Theory [3] for spreading awareness of plasma cosmology, magnetohydrodynamics, etc. I think in the future there will be an ecosystem around solar space weather, [4] is an example of such.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt

[1] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/RG00...

[2] https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700002717/downloads/19...

[3] https://www.electricuniverse.info/peer-reviewed-papers/

[4] https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

I'm pretty sure the Electric Universe Theory is fancy pseudoscience.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Electric_Universe

Do they not teach Landau damping in engineering classes?

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