Discovery of Diffuse Hard X-ray Emission Around Jupiter

Details Discovery of Diffuse Hard X-ray Emission Around Jupiter Discovery of Diffuse Hard X-ray Emission Around Jupiter

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.2410e&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #24.10

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Our discovery of diffuse hard (1-5 keV) X-ray emission around Jupiter is reported. Recent Chandra and XMM-Newton observations revealed several types of X-rays in the vicinity of Jupiter such as auroral and disk emission from Jupiter and faint diffuse X-rays from the Io Plasma Torus (see Bhardwaj et al. 2007 for review). To investigate possible diffuse hard X-ray emission around Jupiter with the highest sensitivity, we conducted data analysis of Suzaku XIS observations of Jupiter on Feb 2006. After removing satellite and planetary orbital motions, we detected a significant diffuse X-ray emission extending to 6 x 3 arcmin with the 1-5 keV X-ray luminosity of 3e15 erg/s. The emitting region very well coincided with the Jupiter's radiation belts and the bright spot seemed to move according to the Io's motion. The 1-5 keV X-ray spectrum was represented by a simple power law model with a photon index of 1.4. Such a flat continuum strongly suggests non-thermal origin. We hence examined three mechanisms: bremsstrahlung by keV electrons, synchrotron emission by TeV electrons, and inverse Compton scattering of solar photons by MeV electrons. The former two can be rejected because of the X-ray spectral shape and implausible existence of TeV electrons around Jupiter, respectively. The last possibility was found to be possible because tens MeV electrons, which have been confirmed in inner radiation belts (Bolton et al. 2002), can kick solar photons to the keV energy range and provide a simple power-law continuum. We estimated an average electron density from the X-ray luminosity assuming the oblate spheroid shaped emitting region with 8 x 8 x 4 Jovian radii. The necessary density was 0.02 1/cm3 for 50 MeV electrons. Hence, our results may suggest a new particle acceleration phenomenon related to Io.

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