Scientists are trying to unravel the mysteries of Jupiter, the largest gas planet in the Solar System, including its massive and long-lasting storms with swirling cloud bands in its atmosphere.
On Jupiter, lightning appears from clouds containing ammonia and water and is most common near the planet’s poles.
The Juno spacecraft first approached to observe Jupiter and its moons in July 2016 after a 5-year journey covering 2.8 billion kilometers.
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The Juno spacecraft captures enigmatic lightning strikes inside a storm on Jupiter. Source: NASA.
It captured lightning during its 31st flyby on December 30, 2020, when it was about 32,000 kilometers from the clouds. Juno’s orbit around Jupiter is gradually shifting closer to the planet, and it will pass through its dark side in the coming months, providing more opportunities to observe lightning on the giant gas planet.
“Along with continuously changing its orbit to get new views of Jupiter and flying low over the planet’s dark side, the spacecraft will also weave between the planet’s cloud belts to learn more about their origin and composition,” said Matthew Johnson, Juno mission project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA.
Juno is equipped with several instruments that can detect beneath the thick cloud layer on Jupiter to collect data on its origin, atmosphere, and weather phenomena.
The Juno spacecraft has completed more than 50 flybys of Jupiter and has also performed close flybys of three of Jupiter’s largest moons, including Europa, Ganymede, and Io.
“Our upcoming flybys in July and October will bring the spacecraft even closer, leading to a double flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io in December this year and February next year, at a distance of only about 1,500 kilometers. All these flybys will provide spectacular views of this amazing moon’s volcanic activity. The data will be very exciting,” said Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of the Juno mission from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
According to NASA, in its extended mission, Juno will continue to explore Jupiter until September 2025 or until the spacecraft’s end of life.