Chandra Release - February 27, 2002

Visual Description: Jupiter

In 2002, Chandra captured an X-ray image of the planet Jupiter. The planet itself appears as a dark magenta speckled circular object in the center of the image, on a black background. The X-ray image of Jupiter shows concentrations of bright auroral X-rays near the north and south magnetic poles. While Chandra observed Jupiter for its entire 10-hour rotation, the northern auroral X-rays were discovered to be due to a single 'hot spot' that pulsates with a period of 45 minutes, similar to high-latitude radio pulsations previously detected by NASA's Galileo and Cassini spacecraft.