Jupiter’s lightning could be up to a million times stronger than Earth’s bolts
TL;DR
A study using NASA’s Juno data suggests Jupiter’s lightning may be enormously more powerful than Earth’s—potentially up to a million times stronger. By analyzing the planet’s radio emissions rather than optical flashes and focusing on long-lived “stealth” storms in Jupiter’s belts, researchers estimated lightning pulses with power ranging from Earth-like bolts to far more powerful discharges. The findings, which consider Jupiter’s hydrogen-dominated atmosphere and towering storm clouds (up to ~62 miles tall), aim to explain why Jovian lightning is so energetic and were published in AGU Advances.
- Lightning on Jupiter could be up to 1 million times stronger than on Earth Space
- Lightning bolts on Jupiter pack more than 100 times the power of Earth’s flashes University of California, Berkeley
- A mission NASA might kill is still returning fascinating science from Jupiter Ars Technica
- Stealth superstorms reveal lightning on Jupiter: Beyond the superbolt MSN
- Lightning Strikes On Jupiter Are More Than 100 Times Stronger Than On Earth IFLScience
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