NASA’s Juno spacecraft has captured an extraordinary sight on Jupiter: a bright green glow shining from the planet’s massive, swirling storms. The unusual image reveals a lightning strike hidden deep within the gas giant’s atmosphere.

Jupiter has just given us another reason to look at the universe in wonder. A striking image captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft shows a tiny, brilliant green glow emerging from the planet’s turbulent clouds, creating a scene that looks almost too strange to be real.

Surrounded by enormous swirling storms, the bright green spot stands out against Jupiter’s dark grey and blue cloud formations. It looks almost like a small lamp glowing in the middle of an endless storm.

But this mysterious light is not an artificial glow. It is lightning.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured the image on December 30, 2020, during its 31st close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, the spacecraft was approximately 19,900 miles (32,000 kilometres) above the planet’s cloud tops, observing a powerful vortex near Jupiter’s north pole.

Lightning on a Giant Planet

Although lightning is familiar on Earth, seeing it on another planet is a remarkable reminder of how active and unpredictable the universe can be.

Unlike Earth’s thunderstorms, which develop primarily in water-rich clouds, Jupiter’s lightning is believed to occur in clouds containing a mixture of ammonia and water. These unusual atmospheric conditions help create electrical activity deep within the planet’s enormous storms.

Jupiter’s polar regions are particularly interesting because lightning activity has been observed there during Juno’s close encounters.

A Closer Look at Jupiter’s Alien Weather

The image reveals much m