![]() Juno is now flying on an extended mission that will last through at least September 2025, provided the spacecraft stays healthy in Jupiter's harsh radiation environment. "Juno's many discoveries have changed our view of Jupiter's atmosphere and interior, revealing an atmospheric weather layer that extends far beyond its clouds and a deep interior with a diluted, or 'fuzzy,' heavy element core," NASA officials wrote in a mission description. The probe's data have given scientists a much better understanding of Jupiter's structure, formation and evolution. The first 35 perijoves were conducted during Juno's primary mission, which ended in July 2021. Juno has now performed 51 close passes of Jupiter, or "perijoves," as the mission team calls them. Something weird is happening in Jupiter's atmosphere, 40-year study shows NASA's Juno mission: Taking a long look at Jupiter "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," NASA officials wrote in the image description. The spacecraft has observed many strikes in Jupiter's thick atmosphere, helping scientists determine that lightning on the gas giant is quite similar to the bolts we see here on Earth. This was not Juno's only brush with Jovian lightning - far from it, in fact. The Juno team welcomes such collaborations you can try your image-processing hand at the JunoCam site. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program, the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a NASA ROSES-2019 "Earth Science Research from Operational Geostationary Satellite Systems" program award.Related: Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet (photos)Ĭitizen scientist Kevin Gill processed the newly released image using raw data gathered by Juno's JunoCam instrument, NASA officials added. "Lightning observations such as these reveal detail about the evolution of an eruption over time, which is particularly valuable when cloud-cover obscures satellite observations of a plume," said Behnke. Remote detection of lightning helped create a detailed timeline of this historic eruption, and demonstrated the value of using volcanic lightning for monitoring volcanic activity. This peak lightning rate is significantly higher than the second most intense lightning event ever detected - 993 flashes per minute - in a thunderstorm over the southern United States in 1999. ![]() The research team, led by the US Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory, found that the eruption produced 2,615 flashes per minute at its peak intensity, which lasted nearly five minutes. The lightning was detected by space-based optical sensors, and global networks of ground-based radio antennas thousands of miles away. Similar "lightning holes" have been observed in thunderstorms, but never on this large of a scale. Donut-shaped rings of lightning expanded with the umbrella cloud and were as large as 174 miles in diameter. ![]() This fast-rising volcanic plume may have created locally higher pressures to support the environment necessary for lightning.Īfter reaching its maximum height, the plume expanded outward as an umbrella cloud, creating fast-moving circular ripples known as gravity waves, similar to a rock dropped in a pond. Lightning was observed at stratospheric altitudes (12 to 18 miles), where the air pressure is too low to support thunderstorm-like lightning. When the undersea volcano in Tonga erupted, it created a plume that went more than 25 miles higher than typical thunderstorms. Powerful volcanic eruptions produce ash plumes that can create their own weather systems, providing the conditions for lightning at higher altitudes than normally seen. "The eruption of Hunga Volcano was the largest volcanic explosion since Krakatau in 1883," said Sonja Behnke, of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Electromagnetic Sciences and Cognitive Space Applications group and author on the paper. ![]()
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