JWST solves Saturn's 40-year rotation mystery: aurora-driven winds, not changing spin
The James Webb Space Telescope has resolved a decades-old puzzle about Saturn's apparent changes in rotation. New observations show the planet's spin was never really shifting. Powerful winds in Saturn's upper atmosphere, driven by the northern lights in a self-sustaining cycle,
The James Webb Space Telescope has resolved a decades-old puzzle about Saturn's apparent changes in rotation. New observations show the planet's spin was never really shifting. Powerful winds in Saturn's upper atmosphere, driven by the northern lights in a self-sustaining cycle, were behind the illusion. Webb tracked Saturn's northern auroral region continuously for one full Saturnian day, using the infrared glow of trihydrogen cation as a natural thermometer to produce the first high-resolution maps of temperature and particle density above the pole. Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.