The mysteries of space can be fascinating beyond imagination. In just one year, the stunning pictures taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have convinced us of it. But now, other NASA spacecraft are also getting in on the action. Recently, NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which is orbiting Jupiter, captured a mysterious image of a green orb that can be seen deep inside the planet. Aliens sending signals? Incorrect. In fact, NASA has revealed that what is captured in the image is the light emitted by a lightning bolt on Jupiter.
Explain the phenomenon, a NASA Blog parcel stated, “In view of a tornado near Jupiter’s north pole, NASA’s Juno mission observed light emitted from a lightning bolt. ABOVE EarthLightning strikes originate in water clouds and occur most frequently near the equator, while on Jupiter lightning is also likely to occur in aqueous-ammonia clouds and can be seen most often near the poles”.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captures the light of a lightning bolt
The image is not a new snapshot of Juno. The photo was taken on December 30, 2020, when the spacecraft completed its 31st close flyby to Jupiter. The image was then processed by Kevin M. Gill, a citizen scientist, from the raw data of the JunoCam instrument. At the time of photographing, Juno was 32,000 km above the clouds of Jupiter.
JunoCam is a visible light telescope camera and it is included in the payload to study the dynamics of the clouds on Jupiter, especially those at the poles. Scientists believe that JunoCam will only be able to operate during the first 8 orbits of Jupiter or until September 2017. However, it will still work.
Over the coming months, Juno’s orbit will continuously bring it close to Jupiter as the spacecraft passes through the giant planet’s night side, which will provide even more opportunities for our science toolkit. Juno to catch lightning in action.
The goal of NASA’s Juno Mission is to measure the composition of Jupiter, its gravitational field, its magnetic field, and the polar magnetosphere. In addition, it is also trying to find clues about the origin of the planet, if it has a rocky core, the amount of water present in its deep atmosphere, the distribution of mass and its deep winds, can reach speeds up to up to 620 degrees Celsius. kilometers per hour.
