NASA's Juno spacecraft observed the glow from a bolt of lightning near Jupiter's north pole. The space agency released an image from the Jupter-orbiting mission. The spacecraft captured this image on December 20, 2020, when Juno completed its 31st close flyby of Jupiter.
According to a news release by NASA, in 2022, citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the image from raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 19,900 miles (32,000 kilometres) above Jupiter's cloud tops, at a latitude of about 78 degrees as it approached the planet.
Explaining about the lightning bolts in Jupiter, NASA said that on Earth lightning bolts originate from water clouds, and happen most frequently near the equator, while on Jupiter lightning likely also occurs in clouds containing an ammonia-water solution, and can be seen most often near the poles.
Data obtained by Juno is providing fresh information on how the lightning processes on Jupiter are similar to those on Earth despite the dramatic differences between the two planets, according to scientists.
Lightning is the most powerful naturally occurring electrical source on Earth.
"Lightning is an electric discharge which is initiated inside thunderclouds. The ice and water particles inside the cloud get charged by collisions and form layers of particles with the charge of the same polarity," said planetary scientist Ivana Kolmasova of the Czech Academy of Sciences' Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Prague, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Nature Communications.
"By this process, a huge electric field is established and the discharge can be initiated. This explanation is somewhat simplified because scientists are still not completely sure what is exactly happening inside thunderclouds," Kolmasova added.
Jupiter is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, with traces of other gases. Stripes and a few storms dominate the colorful appearance of Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun with a diameter of about 88,850 miles (143,000 km).
Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, obtaining information about its atmosphere, interior structure, internal magnetic field and the region around it created by its internal magnetism.
