Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2021 March 24
   The pole of planet Jupiter is shown featuring aurora and lightning.

                      Aurorae and Lightning on Jupiter
      Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI; Text: Natalia Lewandowska

   Explanation: Why does so much of Jupiter's lightning occur near its
   poles? Similar to Earth, Jupiter experiences both aurorae and
   lightning. Different from Earth, though, Jupiter's lightning usually
   occurs near its poles -- while much of Earth's lightning occurs near
   its equator. To help understand the difference, NASA's Juno spacecraft,
   currently orbiting Jupiter, has observed numerous aurora and lightning
   events. The featured image, taken by Juno's Stellar Reference Unit
   camera on 2018 May 24, shows Jupiter's northern auroral oval and
   several bright dots and streaks. An eye-catching event is shown in the
   right inset image -- which is a flash of Jupiter's lightning -- one of
   the closest images of aurora and lightning ever. On Earth (which is
   much nearer to the Sun than Jupiter), sunlight is bright enough to
   create, by itself, much stronger atmospheric heating at the equator
   than the poles, driving turbulence, storms, and lightning. On Jupiter,
   in contrast, atmospheric heating comes mostly from its interior (as a
   remnant from its formation), leading to the hypothesis that more
   intense equatorial sunlight reduces temperature differences between
   upper atmospheric levels, hence reducing equatorial lightning-creating
   storms.

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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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