Jupiter’s Lightning is Not Like Ours

For decades, scientists assumed lightning on Jupiter worked like it does on Earth—clouds, water droplets, electric charge buildup, boom. Turns out, it’s nothing like that. Jupiter’s lightning happens in a completely different way, mostly near its poles, and may involve ammonia acting like antifreeze to keep water slushy in the freezing atmosphere. The storms flash at rates similar to Earth’s thunderstorms—Juno saw peaks of four strikes per second—but the process behind them? Quite different.