I keep hearing on the news this morning that very heaviy radiation is coming from Jupiter which might endanger the recent probe. The implication is that it is radioactivity, but I don’t trust news broadcasters to understand science. Where does this radiation come from?
IIRC, Jupiter has a strong magnetic field. It traps charged particles from the solar wind, as well as from Io’s volcanoes. The result is belts of high velocity charged particles “orbiting” the planet. There are similar belts around the Earth (the Van Allen belts), though since our magnetic field is much smaller and weaker the radiation belts aren’t nearly as massive.
Most likely they’re referring to Jupiter’s equivalents of the Van Allen belts. The “radiation” in this case consists of high-energy electrons and protons that are trapped in the magnetic fields of the planet. The original source of most of these particles is the sun; they were originally part of the so-called “solar wind”.
This wikipedia page explains it a lot better than anything you’ll find in a news report.
Thanks, that is an excellent Wiki page by Jove!