A NASA spacecraft captured the eerie glow of lightning inside a swirling vortex on Jupiter, CNN reported.
NASA's Juno spacecraft has captured a remarkable image of ghostly lightning within a swirling vortex on the planet Jupiter. The green lightning bolt was observed within one of the many vortices that gather near Jupiter's pole, adding to the mysteries surrounding the largest planet in our solar system.
Scientists have been working to comprehend the complex nature of Jupiter, particularly its massive storms and the occurrence of lightning-like events on the gas giant. While lightning on Earth originates from water clouds, Jupiter's lightning emerges from clouds formed by a combination of ammonia and water. Furthermore, these lightning strikes are most commonly found near the planet's poles, unlike the equatorial strikes seen on Earth.
The Juno spacecraft, which arrived at Jupiter in 2016 to study the planet and its moons, captured the image during its 31st close flyby of the gas giant on December 30, 2020. The spacecraft was positioned approximately 32,000 kilometers above Jupiter's cloud tops when the image was taken.
The final image was processed by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill using raw data from Juno's JunoCam instrument. Raw images of Jupiter and its moons captured by JunoCam are made available online, allowing anyone to contribute to the processing and analysis of the data.
Juno's ongoing mission aims to enhance our understanding of Jupiter's distinctive characteristics. The spacecraft's orbit is gradually bringing it closer to the planet, providing more opportunities to observe lightning and other phenomena on Jupiter's nightside.
"As well as continuously changing our orbit to allow new perspectives of Jupiter and flying low over the nightside of the planet, the spacecraft will also be threading the needle between some of Jupiter's rings to learn more about their origin and composition," Matthew Johnson, the acting project manager for the Juno mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, elaborated.
Equipped with various instruments, Juno is capable of detecting phenomena beneath Jupiter's dense cloud cover, thereby collecting crucial data on the planet's origins, atmosphere, and weather patterns. In addition to conducting over 50 flybys of Jupiter, the spacecraft has closely approached three of Jupiter's largest moons: Europa and Ganymede, characterized by icy oceans, and Io, the most volcanically active place in the solar system.
Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute, shared exciting plans for future flybys.
"Our upcoming flybys in July and October will bring us even closer, leading up to our twin flyby encounters with Io in December of this year and February of next year when we fly within 1,500 kilometers of its surface. All of these flybys are providing spectacular views of the volcanic activity of this amazing moon. The data should be amazing," Bolton stated.
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