NASA spacecraft discovers how Jupiter's lightning shares similarity with Earth's

NASA's spacecraft Juno has found in its recent probe that the lightning in Jupiter is very similar to that of Earth. The brownish ammonia clouds that cover Jupitar are similar to the clouds that blanket Earth in their composition. Both are made of water.

And the way lightning is generally within clouds on Earth, a similar eerie sight was spotted by multiple spacecraft which visited the largest planet of the solar system, including Juno.

The data collected by Juno is giving fresh information on the similar processes through which lightning occurs on Jupiter and Earth, even though the two planets have dramatic differences between the two planets, as per scientists.

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"Lightning is an electric discharge which is initiated inside thunderclouds. The ice and water particles inside the cloud get charged by collisions and form layers of particles with the charge of the same polarity," stated planetary scientist Ivana Kolmasova of the Czech Academy of Sciences' Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Prague, who is also the lead author of the study which was published in the journal Nature Communications this week.

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"By this process, a huge electric field is established and the discharge can be initiated. This explanation is somewhat simplified because scientists are still not completely sure what is exactly happening inside thunderclouds," Kolmasova further explained.

The occurrence of lightning on Jupiter was confirmed after telltale radio emissions at audible frequencies were recorded by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979 after it ventured through the solar system.

Lightning in planets of solar system

Lightning has been observed on other gas planets of the solar system - Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Scientists have some evidence of lightning in the clouds of the planet Venus, however, it is still an issue of debate.

Various studies have detailed similarities in the lightning processes on Earth and Jupiter. For instance, lightning rates on both planets are similar although the distribution of lightning on the giant planet differs from that of Earth.

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"On Earth, the tropical regions are the most active ones. The majority of Jovian lightning occurs in mid-latitudes and also in polar regions. We have nearly no lightning activity close to the poles on the Earth. It means that conditions for the formation of Jovian and terrestrial thunderclouds are probably very different," stated Kolmasova.

"There were some attempts to compare the power of lightning based on optical measurements and it was concluded that lightning on Jupiter might be comparable with the strongest terrestrial lightning," he added while emphasising that more analysis is planned.

Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium along with traces of other gases.

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