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Spacecraft Teamwork Ferrets Out Jupiter's Secrets
Judebert writes "Working together, Galileo and Cassini found how the solar wind affects Jupiter, shaping its magnetosphere (the biggest object in the solar system with distinct boundaries) and triggering auroras. They also detected the magnetic footprints of Jupiter's moons in the auroras. The Hubble and Chandra also had a role in this display of inter-planetary teamwork.
Of course, the big benefit you receive from your tax dollars is all the pretty pictures! New desktop images for me!"
Emissions of light (at wavelengths of 595 to 645 nanometers) likely arise from a tenuous atmosphere of oxygen. These glows would appear red to the eye and are consequently colored red in the movie.
Io is also brutally hot, has lots of tectonic activity, and hot and cold running Sulphur Volcanoes.
Still, there is this little tidbit from Solarviews:
The temperature on Io's surface is about -143 C (-230 F); however, a large hot spot associated with a volcanic feature measured about 17 C (60 F). Scientists believe the hot spot may be a lava lake, although the temperature indicates the surface is not molten. This feature is reminiscent of lava lakes on Earth.
My imagination can't help but be stirred by the idea of an open air Ionian resort hotel with swimming pools heated by molten Sulphur and with a dramatic view of Jupiter in the background.
*sigh*... The problems with this is that IO apparently has very little radiation shielding in comparison to earth. Sure you could land there... maybe even walk around, but if you took off your radiation shielding or went outside the sheilded dome, you'd get a fatal tan almost instantly, I think.
Also, while there is an atmospehre, IO is not much more massive than the Earth's moon. Even if it does have oxygen, you'd have to compress and mix it with something other than vaporized sulphur before humans could breath it.
Still, what an idea...
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Actually, what you said is correct (if not what you meant): Jupiter's magnetic axis is more or less aligned with the spin axis. (It is, in fact, tipped 10 degrees towards 202 degrees System III longitude.) The mangetic field does spin with the planet, just like Earth's. This means that the Galilean moons experience different magnetic fields over the 9.92 hour rotation period of Jupiter, as the field sweeps over them.
On the other hand, opposite Earth's current field, Jupiter's mangetic north pole is in the northern hemisphere. (On Earth, just think about that fact that a compass's north is attracted to Earth's 'north', making the latter secretly south.)
If you want some wild magnetic axis action, with a really massive tilt relative to the spin axis, check out Uranus and Neptune. Both have wicked tilts, around 60 degrees.
Oh, the solar wind isn't (much of?) an issue. Probes have survived solar maximum near Earth (SOHO, for instance), and the wind becomes less intense like 1/r2 as you move away from the Sun.
Signal degredation is not really an issue. The solar wind isn't going to affect radio waves that much. Witness Galileo's abilty to send back signals during solar maximum and continuing contact with Pioneer 10 and Voaygers I and II.