Recently, an image showing some features of Jupiter circulated on Arab social media and a green flash appeared in it, sparking controversy over the nature of the flash.

Anddeclared The American Space and Aeronautics Agency (NASA) has already reported this image, and it is in a statement – the image was taken by the “Juno” spacecraft on December 30, 2020, when it was at an altitude of about 30,000 km. Jupiter’s atmosphere.

And “Juno” is a NASA space probe, one of the vehicles of the “New Frontiers” program to explore Jupiter. It was launched on August 5, 2011 and entered orbit around Jupiter on July 5, 2016.

Ammonia-rich clouds

The image was taken of a region near the planet’s north pole, where a large vortex of stormy winds and dense clouds appears, and the scientists managing the mission noticed a green glow on one side of the vortex. , scientists discovered that the glow was created by the planet’s lightning.

On Earth, lightning originates from water-layered clouds, but on Jupiter, lightning bolts occur in clouds containing large amounts of ammonia water solution or ammonium hydroxide, so the glow from these lightning strikes is often seen in green near the poles.

Not exclusive

It is worth noting that lightning also occurs on other planets and is not limited to Earth’s atmosphere. The first observation of lightning was recorded On Jupiter’s surface in 1979, when NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft flew across Jupiter, it detected bright lights in the night sky of the planet.

In addition, these flashes were accompanied by low-frequency radio signals, which unequivocally indicated the presence of lightning.

AndI managed In 2010, the Cassini spacecraft detected lightning on Saturn, a cloud about 3,000 km wide with lightning pulses about 300 km in diameter and lasting less than a fraction of a second each.