When did astronomers first observe Jupiter's aurora?

Aurora came from the Latin word for "dawn, morning light", since auroras were formerly thought to be the first light of dawn. Occurrence of terrestrial auroras Most auroras occur in a band known as the "auroral zone", which is typically 3° to 6° wide in latitude and between 10° and 20° from the geomagnetic poles at all local times (or longitudes), most clearly seen at night against a dark sky. read more

Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini (1625–1712) measured how long it took the planets Jupiter and Mars to rotate. He also discovered four moons of Saturn and the gap in the planet's rings. When NASA launched a satellite to orbit Saturn and its moons in 1997, it was fittingly dubbed Cassini. read more

The astronomers used the CRIRES instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to observe spectral emissions of H3+, an ion of hydrogen present in large amounts in Jupiter's atmosphere, which allowed the scientists to map the mean temperature and density of the planet's atmosphere. read more