Exploring Fundamental Particle Acceleration and Loss Processes in Heliophysics through an Orbiting X-ray Instrument in the Jovian System

TL;DR

This paper discusses how in-orbit X-ray observations combined with in-situ measurements of Jupiter's magnetosphere can advance understanding of particle acceleration and loss processes, serving as a natural laboratory for heliophysics and astrophysics.

Contribution

It introduces the potential of using miniaturized, radiation-tolerant X-ray instruments in Jupiter's system to study fundamental plasma processes and their X-ray signatures.

Findings

Jupiter's magnetosphere accelerates particles to high energies.

X-ray emissions in Jupiter's system reflect various plasma processes.

New X-ray instrumentation enables detailed in-situ and remote studies.

Abstract

Jupiter's magnetosphere is considered to be the most powerful particle accelerator in the Solar System, accelerating electrons from eV to 70 MeV and ions to GeV energies. How electromagnetic processes drive energy and particle flows, producing and removing energetic particles, is at the heart of Heliophysics. Particularly, the 2013 Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space Physics was to "Discover and characterize fundamental processes that occur both within the heliosphere and throughout the universe". The Jovian system offers an ideal natural laboratory to investigate all of the universal processes highlighted in the previous Decadal. The X-ray waveband has been widely used to remotely study plasma across astrophysical systems. The majority of astrophysical emissions can be grouped into 5 X-ray processes: fluorescence, thermal/coronal, scattering, charge exchange and particle acceleration. The Jovian system offers perhaps the only system that presents a rich catalog of all of these X-ray emission processes and can also be visited in-situ, affording the special possibility to directly link fundamental plasma processes with their resulting X-ray signatures. This offers invaluable ground-truths for astrophysical objects beyond the reach of in-situ exploration (e.g. brown dwarfs, magnetars or galaxy clusters that map the cosmos). Here, we show how coupling in-situ measurements with in-orbit X-ray observations of Jupiter's radiation belts, Galilean satellites, Io Torus, and atmosphere addresses fundamental heliophysics questions with wide-reaching impact across helio- and astrophysics. New developments like miniaturized X-ray optics and radiation-tolerant detectors, provide compact, lightweight, wide-field X-ray instruments perfectly suited to the Jupiter system, enabling this exciting new possibility.