Just ahead of the Juno spacecraft's highly anticipated arrival at Jupiter next month, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured some utterly spectacular images of the planet's auroras in the far-ultraviolet spectrum. They are absolutely massive—larger than our entire home planet!

Unlike the auroras we experience here on Earth, which are driven solely by solar storms, Jupiter manages to create its own independent auroral displays by trapping charged particles from its surrounding volcanic moons, particularly Io. The sheer magnetic power of that gas giant is mind-boggling. It's a perfect cosmic preview of what is to come as we prepare to drop a dedicated science platform right into the thick of Jupiter's harsh radiation belts.