AN X-RAY image of the planet Saturn is baffling astronomers. The image, snapped by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, looks dramatically different from Chandra’s earlier images of its gas giant sister, Jupiter.
Chandra’s Jupiter images showed bright X-rays coming from the poles. They are thought to come from solar particles bombarding the planet’s atmosphere as they flood in towards the magnetic poles, a process that also creates auroras.
Saturn’s X-ray profile, released last week, is just the opposite, with the X-rays concentrated mainly around the equator. That’s a surprise, because Saturn has bright auroras near its poles, just as Jupiter does.…
