The mystery of crazy lightning storms on Jupiter has a solution!

What is strange about lightning storms? Why are they considered mysterious? Everything will be answered shortly after.

In the solar system, Jupiter is the largest planet. Although it is just a gas sphere, its mass is equal to the total mass of all other planets in the solar system combined.

However, Jupiter is not only famous for its size, but also because of the climate that is considered hysterical. The planet's atmosphere has a wind speed of up to 360 km / h, can form a storm for several hours, and sweep an entire area thousands of kilometers in diameter after 1 night. In particular, it was accompanied by a continuous thunder and lightning , flashing an area.

The problem is that the lightning storms on Jupiter are always considered mysterious, because the frequency it emits is not catchable.

Picture 1 of The mystery of crazy lightning storms on Jupiter has a solution!
Light up on Jupiter.

"No matter which planet you are in, thunder always emits radio waves when lightning flashes," said Shannon Brown, NASA expert.

"But so far, the lightning signal on Jupiter has always been impossible to capture, because our spacecraft is only equipped with a radio with kilohertz band ."

And now, every mystery has been solved, thanks to being launched since 2011. Juno has caught the radio signal emitted from the lightning at Jupiter, and it falls into the threshold megahertz frequency (1 megahertz = 1,000 kilohertz ). The study is published in 2 different reports.

"Over 8 outreach visits, Juno has identified 377 times of thunderbolt explosion on Jupiter," said Brown, the first study author.

"They emit a megahertz frequency, even gigahertz (1000 megahertz). The reason we confirm this is probably because Juno is approaching Jupiter at the closest distance ever."

Picture 2 of The mystery of crazy lightning storms on Jupiter has a solution!
No matter where it is, thunder and lightning still have to emit radio waves.

In short, there was thunder on Jupiter - this was officially confirmed by Juno. However, it is not like Earth at all. Brown said that Jupiter's thunderstorms are often clustered around two poles, and there is no lightning at the equator. While on Earth, everything is the opposite.

According to the expert team, the cause may lie in temperature. On Earth, the equator is the place that receives the most heat from the Sun. That is why the climate around the equator is usually hot and humid, and there are many storms.

As for Jupiter, the distance between it and the Sun is five times greater than that of the Earth, so the resulting heat is also lower. The temperature in the atmosphere will spread evenly, except for the 2 poles. As a consequence, hot gas will accumulate to two poles, creating terrible storms in these areas.

Picture 3 of The mystery of crazy lightning storms on Jupiter has a solution!
Jupiter lightning on Jupiter often converges into clusters around 2 poles.

One interesting point is that on Jupiter, lightning storms occur in the Northern Hemisphere more . This is unexplained science.

In the second study, experts found a similarity between Earth and Jupiter. After comparing data from Juno and, they realized that the maximum density of clay on Jupiter is 4 times / s, on par with Earth.

"These results help us better understand the climate on Jupiter: composition, convection and energy flow," Brown said.

The study was published in Nature and Nature Astronomy.