NASA’s Juno probe is still out there in space, orbiting Jupiter and sending back incredible images of our solar system's largest planet. For years we’ve known that its surface is a tempestuous hellscape, covered in giant storms many times the size of our planet. Now experts say those storms might not be so different from ours.
00:00NASA's Juno probe is still out there in space, orbiting Jupiter and sending back incredible images of our solar system's largest planet.
00:11For years, we've known that its surface is a tempestuous hellscape, covered in giant storms many times the size of our planet.
00:18We've also been able to tell from orbit that some of those storms include lightning.
00:22And now, for the first time, scientists say it's very much like lightning you might find on Earth.
00:27NASA's scientists have found data that has revealed just how the lightning initiates on Jupiter, beginning with an almost rhythmic pulsing in the storm clouds, before the lightning erupts and moves deeper towards the center of the gas giant.
00:38Experts have captured images and videos of these events over the years, showing what it looks like when it happens in the upper atmosphere.
00:45Now they say these are just like the strongest examples of lightning on our planet.
00:49After all, bigger planet, bigger storms, bigger lightning.
00:52Lightning on Jupiter has long been of interest to astronomers, as on Earth, lightning oxidizes diatomic nitrogen in the air.
00:58However, Jupiter is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium, with the interactions between the flashy phenomena and molecular hydrogen still being a bit of a mystery to scientists.
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