- 1Southern University of Science and Technology, DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCES, China (xuyan@sustech.edu.cn)
- 2Department of Physics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
- 3NWU-HKU Joint Centre of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, UK
- 5Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA
- 6Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, US
- 7Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
- 8Space Research Corporation, Annapolis, MD, USA
- 9NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- 10Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- 11Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
The magnetospheric cusp connects the planetary magnetic field to interplanetary space, offering opportunities for charged particles to precipitate to or escape from the planet. Terrestrial cusps are typically found near noon local time, but the characteristics of the Jovian cusp are unknown. Here for the first time we show direct evidence of Jovian cusps using datasets from multiple instruments onboard Juno spacecraft. We find that the cusps of Jupiter are in the dusk sector, which is contradicting Earth-based predictions of a near-noon location. Nevertheless, the characteristics of charged particles in the Jovian cusps resemble terrestrial and Saturnian cusps, implying similar cusp microphysics exist across different planets. These results demonstrate that while the basic physical processes may operate similarly to those at Earth, Jupiter’s rapid rotation and its location in the heliosphere can dramatically change the configuration of the cusp. This work provides significant insights into the fundamental consequences of star-planet interactions, highlighting how planetary environments and rotational dynamics influence magnetospheric structures.
How to cite: Xu, Y., Arridge, C., Yao, Z., Zhang, B., Ray, L., Badman, S., Dunn, W., Ebert, R., Chen, J., Allegrini, F., Kurth, W., Qin, T., Connerney, J., McComas, D., Bolton, S., and Wei, Y.: In Situ Evidence of the Dusk-side Cusp of Jupiter from Juno Spacecraft Measurements, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-14769, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-14769, 2025.