The Jovian Magnetosphere
The discovery of planetary magnetospheres began in 1959 when the first U.S. Explorer satellite detected the radiation belts around the Earth. Named for James Van Allen of the University of Iowa, whose geiger-counter instrument aboard Explorer 1 first measured them, these belts are regions in which charged atomic particles—primarily electrons and protons—are trapped by the magnetic field of the Earth. They are one manifestation of the terrestrial magnetosphere—a large, dynamic region around the Earth in which the magnetic field of our planet interacts with streams of charged particles emanating from the Sun.
At almost the same time that the terrestrial magnetosphere was being discovered by artificial satellites, astronomers were finding evidence to suggest similar phenomena around Jupiter. Radio astronomy is a branch of science that measures radiation from celestial bodies at radio frequencies, which correspond to wavelengths much longer than those of visible or infrared light. All planets emit weak thermal radio radiation, but in the late 1950s investigators found that Jupiter was a much stronger long-wave radio source than would be expected for a planet with its temperature. This radiation bore the signature of higher-energy processes. Physicists had seen similar emissions produced in synchrotron electron accelerators, huge machines in which electrons are whirled around at nearly the speed of light so that they can be used for experiments in nuclear physics. The Russian theorist I. S. Shklovsky identified the Jovian radio radiation as also resulting from the synchrotron process, due to spiraling electrons trapped in the planet’s magnetic field. From the intensity and spectrum of the observed synchrotron radiation, it was clear that both the magnetic field of the planet and the energy of charged particles in its Van Allen belts were much greater than was the case for Earth.
Using radio telescopes of high sensitivity, astronomers determined the approximate strength and orientation of the magnetic field of Jupiter. Although they were able to measure synchrotron radiation only from the innermost parts of the Jovian magnetosphere, they could infer that the total volume occupied by the magnetosphere was enormous. If our eyes were sensitive to magnetospheric emissions, Jupiter would look more than twice the diameter of the full moon in the sky.
All four Galilean satellites orbit within the magnetosphere of Jupiter; in contrast, our Moon lies well outside the terrestrial magnetosphere. Striking evidence of the interaction of the satellites and the magnetosphere was provided when it was found that the innermost large satellite—Io—actually affects the bursts of radio static produced by Jupiter. Only when Io is at certain places in its orbit are these strong bursts detected. Theorists suggested that electric currents flowing between the satellite and the planet might be responsible for this effect.