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Published online 11 October 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2007.160
News in Brief
New Horizons catches Jupiter in a sunny mood
Good weather undermines NASA's chance to study Jovian storms.
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Please note this is News in Brief, and so will be a short article.
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Jupiter emits about 2 times as much energy as it receives from the Sun, suggestion is that this is due to the internal radiation, however Jupiter is a frozen planet surrounded by thick atmosphere; internal radiation is a questionable scenario. I suggest that this excess radiated energy (if thermal balance is to be maintained) is due to the energy gained trough interaction of its powerful magnetic field with the solar magnetic flux; rough calculation shows this to be about 3 x 1018 joules/sec which is more then 16 times as much as total energy the Earth itself receives from the Sun. Some of this extra energy input may feed through down to planet’s atmosphere. Since solar activity at the moment is at its minimum, then input of the energy from the solar magnetic flux would also be at its minimum, i.e. ‘Jupiter in an uncharacteristically good mood’. A comparison of the ‘historic photographs’ of its storm should pinpoint if there is a link to the solar activity.