Huge Earth-sized vortex: scientists explain invisible magnetic tornadoes on Jupiter

Planetary scientists have issued a tornado warning for Jupiter. Researchers have found that magnetic vortices swirling from the planet's ionosphere into its deep atmosphere lead to the emergence of giant ultraviolet-absorbing anticyclones the size of the Earth.

These anticyclonic storms appear as dark ovals and are visible as dense aerosols in Jupiter's stratosphere. However, they are only visible in ultraviolet light and were first spotted at Jupiter's north and south poles by the Hubble Space Telescope in the late 1990s, Space.com reports.

Planetary scientists, led by University of California, Berkeley student Troy Tsubota, found that the dark ovals are formed by swirling magnetic tornadoes that occur during friction between magnetic field lines in Jupiter's powerful magnetic field.

A key to understanding dark, ultraviolet-absorbing anticyclones has been found in annual images of Jupiter taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. As part of the OPAL project, Hubble takes pictures of each of the giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – once a year to track changes in their appearance.

In the images of Jupiter taken between 2015 and 2022, Troy Tsubota saw a dark oval at the planet's south pole, but only once out of eight images at the north pole.

Scientists explain that, like on Earth, Jupiter's magnetic field converges at the poles. This concentration of magnetic field lines directs charged particles to the polar regions, where they collide with atmospheric molecules, creating auroras.

On Jupiter, the aurora can only be detected in ultraviolet light, unlike the colorful reflections we see in the Earth's sky. The presence of a temporary phenomenon, such as dark ovals appearing at Jupiter's poles, strongly suggests that it is related to the planet's magnetic field, just like the aurora borealis, scientists believe.

Tsubota and his supervisor Michael Wong teamed up with other leading scientists to solve the mystery of what causes the dark ovals.

The researchers suggested that the friction between the magnetic field lines in the plasma torus and the lines closer to the planet in the ionosphere could regularly trigger the formation of magnetic vortices that rotate deep into Jupiter.

And then, according to the scientists, these magnetic tornadoes stir up aerosols in the lower atmosphere, creating a dense area of swirling, ultraviolet-absorbing haze that forms a dark oval.

Researchers think that dark ovals form for about a month and then dissipate within a few weeks. And given the regularity of the appearance of dark ovals, it seems that Jupiter is sitting in the middle of its own magnetic tornado alley, scientists suggest.

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