Light shows may interfere with measuring the planet’s days
Saturn creates its own aurorae, a new study has found. Normally, aurorae are generated by charged particles from sources outside a planet – such as the solar wind or a volcanic moon – interacting with its magnetosphere.
The discovery could help explain why scientists have struggled to measure the length of a day on Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft tried to do it using radio pulses emitted by the gas giant, but found they didn’t remain constant, suggesting the planet’s spin was changing speed, which should be impossible. It now appears that aurorae are interfering with the radio pulses and affecting the measurements.
“This is likely to initiate some rethinking about how local atmospheric weather effects on a planet impact the creation of aurorae, not just in our Solar System but elsewhere too,” says Nahid Chowdhury, who took part in the study.
