Thursday, March 26, 2026

Jupiter's Lightning Could Be Almost Unbelievably Powerful

This image shows Juno's track over Jupiter with a yellow line. The blue circles represent a cluster of radio pulses from lightning. These pulses are far more powerful than terrestrial pulses. The source of the lightning might be what's called a "stealth superstorm." Image Credit: Michael Wong et al. (2026, AGU Advances; HST and Juno MWR)

Juno observations show that Jupiter's lightning, already known to be powerful, is far more energetic than thought. Lightning triggered by a stealth superstorm in 2021-22 could be up to one million times more powerful than terrestrial lightning.



No comments:

Post a Comment