Jupiter's Magnetic Poles

The north and the south pole of Jupiter are behaving quite independent of each other. While the north pole exhibits random fluctuations, the south pole pulses at a steady 11 minute frequency.

This strongly indicate that Jupiter's magnetic field is generated by two separate entities, one at the north and another one at the south.

These two magnetic objects will naturally align so as not to repel each other, but will otherwise behave fairly independently.

For this to be the case, the magnetic fields must be generated away from Jupiter's centre. Furthermore, Jupiter cannot have a core that's very conductive to magnetism. Otherwise, the two poles would influence each much more than what's being observed.

This supports the resent findings by NASA that Jupiter has a large and diffuse core. A hollow planet would necessarily have two magnetic regions. The magnetic fields would have to be produced in the atmosphere or in some region under the surface.

The fact that Earth's north and south pole are only loosely coordinated when it comes to magnetism suggests further that Earth has a similar structure, although much less pronounced due to its much smaller size.

Jupiter

By NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester), Public Domain, Link