Hidden below the brownish ammonia clouds blanketing Jupiter are clouds that like on Earth are made of water. And like on Earth, lightning often is generated within these clouds - an eerie sight spotted by various spacecraft that have visited our solar system's largest planet, including NASA's Juno probe.
This artist's concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter's northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image from the NASA spacecraft Juno with artistic embellishments. Data from NASA's Juno mission indicates that most of the lightning activity on Jupiter is near its poles. Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/JunoCam/Handout via REUTERSare clouds that like on Earth are made of water.
Earth is a relatively small rocky world. Jupiter, whose namesake ancient Roman god flung lightning bolts, is a gas giant so immense that all the other planets in our solar system could neatly fit inside it - including more than 1,300 Earths. The existence of lightning on Jupiter was confirmed when telltale radio emissions at audible frequencies were recorded in 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft as it ventured through the solar system.- also have been shown to have lightning. There is some evidence for lightning in the clouds of the rocky planet Venus, though it is still a matter of debate.
"On Earth, the tropical regions are the most active ones. The majority of Jovian lightning occurs in mid-latitudes and also in polar regions. We have nearly no lightning activity close to the poles on the Earth. It means that conditions for the formation of Jovian and terrestrial thunderclouds are probably very different," Kolmasova said.
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