Aurorae and Lightning on Jupiter
Explanation:
Why does so much of Jupiter's lightning occur near its poles?
Similar to
Earth,
Jupiter experiences both aurorae and lightning.
Different from Earth, though,
Jupiter's
lightning usually occurs near its
poles -- while much of
Earth's lightning occurs near its equator.
To help understand
the difference,
NASA's
Juno spacecraft,
currently orbiting Jupiter, has observed numerous aurora and
lightning events.
The featured image, taken by Juno's Stellar Reference Unit camera on 2018 May 24,
shows Jupiter's northern
auroral oval and several bright dots and streaks.
An eye-catching event is shown in the right inset image -- which is a flash of
Jupiter's lightning -- one of the closest images of
aurora and lightning ever.
On Earth
(which is much nearer to the Sun than Jupiter),
sunlight is bright enough to create, by itself,
much stronger atmospheric heating at the equator than the poles,
driving turbulence, storms, and lightning.
On Jupiter,
in contrast, atmospheric heating comes mostly from
its interior
(as a remnant from its formation),
leading to the hypothesis that more intense equatorial
sunlight
reduces temperature differences between upper
atmospheric levels,
hence reducing
equatorial lightning-creating storms.
APOD via Facebook in: in
English,
Catalan and
Portuguese
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
