Figure 7-9 Jupiter’s Magnetosphere (a) Created by the planet’s rotation, the ion-trapping regions of Jupiter’s magnetosphere (in orange, analogous to the Van Allen belts) extend into the realm of the Galilean moons. Gases from Io and Europa form tori (doughnut-shaped regions) in the magnetosphere. Some of Io’s particles are pulled by the field onto the planet. Pushed outward by the solar wind, the magnetosphere has a “magnetotail” pointing away from the Sun. The magnetotail is often over 500 million km (310 million mi) long and sometimes it reaches all the way to Saturn. (b) High-energy particles, trapped in Jupiter’s magnetosphere, excite gases in the planet’s upper atmosphere, causing them to glow as aurorae. The magnetosphere and cloud motion also lead to lightning on Jupiter. (c) Three lightning storms originating in Jupiter’s water cloud layer, imaged by the Galileo spacecraft. Each image shows changing, multiple lightning flashes. The brightest images are lightning flashes as powerful as 30 million 100-watt lightbulbs shining for 1 second. This is much more powerful than any lightning on Earth.