Why does Jupiter have radiation?
In: 0
Mostly the Sun. Jupiter has a really strong magnetic field which catches incoming radiation from the Sun and channels it around the planet. This field being strong also means it is able to capture these particles from very far away.
So you have a large area to collect radiation, and it gets funnelled down to a small space around the planet, meaning the intensity of radiation is quite high
Jupiter has an enormous interior ocean of compressed metallic hydrogen that’s probably more massive than all the other planets combined.
This *vast* boiling metallic slush generates a tremendously powerful magnetic field thousands of times larger and dozens of times stronger than Earth’s.
This lets Jupiter sweep up all manner of ionized solar and cosmic radiation and condense it into intense radiation belts around the planet suspended by the magnetic field.
it got uranium and other radioactive elements from the “space dust” as it formed into planets and the star. Uranium is heavy and Jupiter is far from the sun, so probably it probably got less of uranium than earth (in relative terms), but it still has some.
in addition, there might be some nuclear fusion going on in there, since gas giants would turn into a star if they had more mass, and fusion is what happens in the stars.
In addition to the other great explanations here, I will add that objects which have a temperature (for example, anything with mass, such as a planet, or my dog) radiate energy in the form of heat, and that this thermal radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation (another form of electromagnetic radiation is light, light including non-visible light such as radio waves and x-rays and gamma rays).
Latest Answers