Strange object the size of Earth appears on Jupiter

As the largest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter still holds many mysteries that science has yet to explain.

By observing Jupiter with the Hubble Space Telescope over many years, researchers have discovered the appearance of dark oval-shaped objects at the planet's south and north poles.

The strange object appears as a giant tornado when observed in ultraviolet light by the Hubble Space Telescope (Photo: UC Berkeley).

They create giant ultraviolet-absorbing vortices , each about the size of Earth, that appear as dark ovals and are visible as dense haze in Jupiter's stratosphere.

But no one knows where these strange objects come from.

It was only now that planetary scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, were able to officially decode them.

They believe these are magnetic tornadoes , created by friction between magnetospheres in Jupiter's powerful magnetic field.

Like on Earth, Jupiter's magnetic field converges at the poles, then pushes charged particles toward where they collide with molecules in the atmosphere, creating auroras.

Unlike Earth, auroras on Jupiter can only be detected by UV light, so they won't resemble the colorful displays we're used to seeing in Earth's skies.

However, the fact that a transient phenomenon like dark ovals appears at Jupiter's poles suggests a connection to the planet's magnetic field, much like auroras.

Tom Stallard, a planetary scientist at Northumbria University in the UK, believes that in Jupiter's ionosphere, magnetic vortices regularly form, and they spiral deep into Jupiter's stratosphere.

These magnetic vortices then stir up aerosol particles in the lower atmosphere, creating a dense, cyclone-shaped patch of fog that then absorbs ultraviolet light to form a dark oval.

This also suggests that the strange object was likely formed by vortex dynamics, rather than a chemical reaction caused by energetic particles from the atmosphere.

Although humans have observed and studied Jupiter for more than 2,000 years, the planet remains a "mystery zone" for humanity.

The closest distance between Earth and Jupiter is recorded as 587 million km. Meanwhile, the farthest distance is 980 million km.

To date, only two probes have traveled to Jupiter and stopped there. They are the Galileo and Juno spacecraft. Galileo took more than six years to reach Jupiter's orbit, while Juno did the same in nearly five years.