Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. But Jupiter's magnetic field is extremely large and ionized material expelled from the volcanic moon Io is trapped in it creating light shows 1,000 times more intense than Earth's auroral storms . The result is auroral hot spots - magnetic footprints 600 or more miles across which race over Jupiter's cloud tops . A hot spot is visible in both images as a comet-like feature just outside the polar auroral rings .
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