NASA Captures Eerie Photo of Jupiter's Storm

By Adam Barnhardt

NASA's Juno spacecraft recently managed to capture a series of snapshots of Jupiter, with one such picture going viral because of its eerie contents. The space agency recently released a picture of one of the gas giant's multiple storms, only this particular storm had a glowing green light peeking through the storm clouds. According to the group, the green light is a ball of lightning.

"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 says of the picture.

It adds, "Juno captured this view as Juno completed its 31st close flyby of Jupiter on Dec. 30, 2020. In 2022, Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the image from raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 19,900 miles (32,000 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops, at a latitude of about 78 degrees as it approached the planet."

Juno is expected to capture similar photos in the coming months as it completes orbits over the planet's night side. Given Jupiter's one of the planets in our solar system furthest from the Sun, scientists hope to put an enhanced look on the planet in the coming years. Another such planet with an increased focus is Uranus.

 "We saw this mission as delivering absolutely transformative, breakthrough science because we know so little about these systems. We are sure there are going to be lots of surprises once we get there," Robin Canup said in the report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine last year.

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