NASA has just announced that the Juno spacecraft has once again observed “Superbolts” of lightning in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
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NASA Releases Images of Lightning Superbolts on Jupiter
For these superbolts of lightning—which are up to 1,000 times as powerful as lightning on Earth—to occur at those higher altitudes, there needs to be some way to keep water in its liquid state. And that’s where ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, enters the picture.
Turns out, Jupiter gets bumped and bruised pretty often. The planet’s intense gravity means space debris and asteroids get pulled towards its surface.
No planet makes our jaws drop harder than Jupiter. It’s the gas giant that has that “magical” swirly face, and a centuries-old double-Earth-sized storm on its surface, which is basically one giant beauty mark.
Juno has completed another elliptical orbit of Jupiter in 2017 and delivered a brand new view of Jupiter’s most notable and mysterious feature: the roughly 25,000-mile-wide storm known as the Great Red Spot.
