This artist’s concept shows powerful lightning bolts in high clouds on Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet, as detected by the orbiting Juno spacecraft. Previous craft had seen lightning at greater depths in the planet’s turbulent atmosphere, but Juno’s detection was the first at such high altitudes. Juno’s observations also suggest that such high storm clouds produce “mushballs” — hailstones made of a mixture of water and ammonia, which keeps them mushy at lower temperatures. [NASA/JPL/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Heidi N. Becker/Koji Kuramura]
Find out more in our radio program entitled Moon and Jupiter.