Just For Slack

Na, this a gas field where they are fracking. Just lights and gas flares.

And burning tires too?

Oooo Ahhhh....what's that line running round the planet?

Must be aliens spinning donuts in the interplanetary parking lot.

What was interesting to me really was that the aurora is mostly in the ultraviolet spectral region. Is this due to the methane atmosphere? Higher excitation due to larger magnetic field?

Yes the makeup of the atmosphere determines the wavelength.... and I think the viewing angle may have some effect as well....When I lived in the NW I used to see these all the time, they were always green in color....

The Tropic of Cancer. In their version, it's printed right on the planet.

The strange appearance of Jupiter's aurora results from the source of the ions that generate it -- Jupiter's moons. Unlike earth's auroras which are intermittent, Jupiter's auroras are permanent features.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/jupiter/magnetic.html

"Aurorae[edit]

Image of Jupiter's northern aurorae, showing the main auroral oval, the polar emissions, and the spots generated by the interaction with Jupiter's natural satellites

Jupiter demonstrates bright, persistent aurorae around both poles. Unlike Earth's aurorae, which are transient and only occur at times of heightened solar activity, Jupiter's aurorae are permanent, though their intensity varies from day to day. They consist of three main components: the main ovals, which are bright, narrow (less than 1000 km in width) circular features located at approximately 16° from the magnetic poles;^[42] the satellites' auroral spots, which correspond to the footprints of the magnetic field lines connecting Jupiter's ionosphere with those of its largest moons, and transient polar emissions situated within the main ovals.^[42][43] Whereas the auroral emissions were detected in almost all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to X-rays (up to 3 keV), they are brightest in the mid-infrared (wavelength 3–4 μm and 7–14 μm) and deep ultraviolet spectral regions (wavelength 80–180 nm).^[9]

The main ovals are the dominant part of the Jovian aurorae. They have stable shapes and locations,^[43] but their intensities are strongly modulated by the solar wind pressure—the stronger solar wind, the weaker the aurorae.^[44] As mentioned above, the main ovals are maintained by the strong influx of electrons accelerated by the electric potential drops between the magnetodisk plasma and the Jovian ionosphere.^[45] These electrons carry field aligned currents, which maintain the plasma's co-rotation in the magnetodisk.^[30] The potential drops develop because the sparse plasma outside the equatorial sheet can only carry a current of a limited strength without those currents.^[31] The precipitating electrons have energy in the range 10–100 keV and penetrate deep into the atmosphere of Jupiter, where they ionize and excite molecular hydrogen causing ultraviolet emission.^[46] The total energy input into the ionosphere is 10–100 TW.^[47] In addition, the currents flowing in the ionosphere heats it by the process known as Joule heating. This heating, which produces up to 300 TW of power, is responsible for the strong infrared radiation from the Jovian aurorae and partially for the heating of the thermosphere of Jupiter.^[48]

^[49]

Spots were found to correspond to three Galilean moons: Io,Europa andGanymede.^{[note 6][50]}They develop because the co-rotation of the plasma is slowed in the vicinity of moons. The brightest spot belongs to Io, which is the main source of the plasma in the magnetosphere (see above). The Ionian auroral spot is thought to be related to Alfvén currents flowing from the Jovian to Ionian ionosphere. Europa's and Ganymede's spots are much dimmer, because these moons are weak plasma sources, because of sublimation of the water ice from their surfaces.^[51]

Bright arcs and spots sporadically appear within the main ovals. These transient phenomena are thought to be related to interaction with the solar wind.^[43] The magnetic field lines in this region are believed to be open or to map onto the magnetotail.^[43] The secondary ovals observed inside the main oval may be related to the boundary between open and closed magnetic field lines or to the polar cusps.^[52] The polar auroral emissions are similar to those observed around Earth's poles: both appear when electrons are accelerated towards the planet by potential drops, during reconnection of solar magnetic field with that of the planet.^[30] The regions within both main ovals emit most of auroral X-rays. The spectrum of the auroral X-ray radiation consists of spectral lines of highly ionized oxygen and sulfur, which probably appear when energetic (hundreds of kiloelectronvolts) S and O ions precipitate into the polar atmosphere of Jupiter. The source of this precipitation remains unknown.^[41]"

Thank you for actually contributing to my thread than just defacing it wityh irrelevant pictures or a lame comment

Come back Pluto! All is forgiven!

admit it, it's a cool pic

You D*** skippy it is!!!

A cool picture and an interesting puzzle. Thanks!