NASA’s Juno mission catches lightning on Jupiter

Juno captured the view as it completed its 31st close flyby of Jupiter.

NASA’s Juno mission images show lightning on Jupiter (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS).

Washington: NASA’s Juno mission captured lightning on Jupiter, the agency said.

Juno captured the view as it completed its 31st close flyby of Jupiter on December 30, 2020. The image shows a vortex near Jupiter’s north pole.

The spacecraft’s JunoCam instrument observed the glow of a lightning bolt.

On Earth, lightnings originate from water clouds and are most often seen near the equator, while on Jupiter lightning also likely occurs in clouds containing an ammonia-water solution and is most often seen near the poles, NASA said .

In 2022, citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the image from raw data from the JunoCam.

At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 20,000 miles above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 78 degrees as it approached the planet.

In the coming months, Juno’s orbits will repeatedly bring it close to Jupiter as the spacecraft passes over the giant planet’s night side, providing even more opportunities for Juno’s suite of science instruments to catch lightning in the act, mission officials said.

The spacecraft launched in August 2011 and arrived at Jupiter in July 2016.

The mission aims to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter, search for solid planetary cores, map magnetic fields, measure water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe auroras.

Last month, the spacecraft flew past the gas giant’s volcanic moon Io. The jovian moon’s flyby was the closest yet, at an altitude of about 35,500 km.

Now in its third year of its extended mission to probe Jupiter’s interior, the solar-powered spacecraft will also explore the ring system where some of the gas giant’s inner moons reside.

To date, Juno has performed 50 flybys of Jupiter and also collected data during close encounters with three of the four Galilean moons – the icy worlds of Europa and Ganymede, and fiery Io.

Last month, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer or JUICE mission is ready to study Jupiter.

Launched on 13 April, JUICE is ESA’s first-ever mission to find extraterrestrial life on the icy worlds of Jupiter.