Juno Solves 39-Year Old Mystery of Jupiter Lightning

Ever since NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft flew past Jupiter in March, 1979, scientists have wondered about the origin of Jupiter’s lightning. That encounter confirmed the existence of Jovian lightning, which had been theorized for centuries. But when the venerable explorer hurtled by, the data showed that the lightning-associated radio signals didn’t match the details of the radio signals produced by lightning here at Earth.

In a new paper published in Nature today, scientists from NASA’s Juno mission describe the ways in which lightning on Jupiter is actually analogous to Earth’s lightning. Although, in some ways, the two types of lightning are polar opposites.

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Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/JunoCam

This artist’s concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image with artistic embellishments. Data from NASA’s Juno mission indicates that most of the lightning activity on Jupiter is near its poles.

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Jupiter has enormous lightning-filled storms, and NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter will (among many other things) help us understand how deep into this cloud-covered planet the storms go.

As Juno approached Jupiter on August 27, 2016, it's Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument captured the planet's glow in infrared light.