In this extraordinary image captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, a strange blue light flashes through the clouds of Jupiter – one of the planets most clearly visible from Earth.
The mysterious blue light recorded by the Juno spacecraft was identified as a lightning bolt created in the same way as lightning on Earth – Photo: NASA
“On Earth, lightning originates from water clouds and occurs most frequently at the equator. Meanwhile, on Jupiter, lightning is also likely to occur in clouds containing aqueous solutions – ammonia is seen most frequently at the poles,” NASA officials explained.
The discovery joins a series of discoveries that have changed NASA’s view of the atmosphere beneath the billowing sea of clouds seen from above. It reveals another layer of atmospheric weather, deep below, that contains traces of heavier elements.
Blue lightning is interesting not only because it points out another similarity between this planet and Earth, but also because some recent studies suggest that lightning plays a very important role in a planet giving rise to life.
Notably, Jupiter also attracts scientists because of the giant moons orbiting it, the most famous of which is Europa – which will welcome NASA’s Europa Clipper life-hunting spacecraft, scheduled to launch in late 2024.