NASA detects unexpected lightning storms in Jupiter's upper atmosphere
Some of the most extreme weather in the Solar System just got stranger.
08 August, 2020
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt
- The Juno space probe orbiting Jupiter has observed lightning at impossibly high points in the Jovian atmosphere.
- The findings, combined with other atmopsheric data, led to the creation of a new model of the atmosphere.
- The findings answer a few questions about Jupiter, but create many more.
<p>Since 2016, NASA's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html" target="_blank">Juno spacecraft</a> has been observing Jupiter's atmosphere, magnetosphere, and gravitational field. It has already managed to take fantastic images, discovered new <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-juno-navigators-enable-jupiter-cyclone-discovery" target="_blank">cyclones</a>, and analyze the gasses that make up the planet in the time it has spent investigating it. </p><p>This week, Juno was able to add another discovery to its name with the unexpected finding of lightning in the upper atmosphere of the Solar System's largest planet. </p>
<p>The findings are described in the study "<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2532-1" target="_blank">Small lightning flashes from shallow electrical storms on Jupiter</a>," published in Nature. Previous missions to Jupiter, including Voyager 1, Galileo, and New Horizons all observed lightning, but without the benefits of the equipment on Juno or more recent developments in models of the Jovian atmosphere.</p><p>In this case, the lighting is notable for how high it is occurring in the atmosphere. While previous observations suggested lightning in water-based clouds deep inside the gas planet, the new data suggests lightning exists in the upper atmosphere in clouds of water and ammonia. This lightning is dubbed "shallow lightning." </p><p>According to a <a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/08/ammonia-sparks-unexpected-exotic-lightning-jupiter" target="_blank">press release</a> by Cornell University, the ammonia is vital in creating the lightning, as it functions as an "anti-freeze" of sorts to keep the water in the clouds from freezing. The collision of droplets of mixed ammonia and water with ice water particles creates the charge needed for lightning strikes. <br> <br> This is different from any process that creates lightning on Earth.</p><p>That wasn't the only bit of strangeness the probe noticed. While Juno saw plenty of ammonia near the equator and at lower levels of the atmosphere, it was hard-pressed to find much anywhere else. To explain this, researchers developed a new model of atmospheric mixing. They suggest that the ammonia at lower levels of the atmosphere rises into storm clouds, interacts with water to cause the aforementioned lightning, and then falls back down in the form of <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-08-ammonia-rich-hail-jupiter-weather.html" target="_blank">hailstones</a>. </p><p>The scientists gave these ammonia and water ice hailstones the name "mushballs<a href="https://www.inverse.com/science/jupiter-mush-balls" target="_blank"></a>."</p><p>This model explains many things, including why Juno couldn't detect ammonia where it expected to: the mushballs would be more challenging to detect than ammonia or water vapor. The scientists further speculated that the weight of the mushballs pulls the ammonia to lower levels of the <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-juno-spacecraft-reveals-jupiters-unusual-electrical-storms-shallow-lightning-and-mushballs/" target="_blank">atmosphere</a> where it is detected in more significant amounts. </p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU0MjYzNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzk5MTExMX0.LG0dhmlEmQbtVFmdY-s8wIieLt0ldFdtIsBpjNeewfQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="ea706" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="080d254387c43fd4f3210e48cbb6d388" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A NASA designed graphic demonstrating the weather systems theorized to create "mushballs." The liquid water and ammonia rises in the storm clouds until they reach points where the extremely low temperatures cause them to freeze. Freezing into semi-solid "mushballs" causes them to fall where they redistribute ammonia throughout the lower atmosphere.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/CNRS
How can we possibly know all of this?
<p>Juno relies on several pieces of equipment. The most relevant in this case is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_Radiometer_(Juno)" target="_blank">microwave radiometer</a>. This device uses microwaves to measure the Jovian atmosphere's composition. When microwaves hit water or ammonia particles, they begin to heat up. By hitting the planet with microwaves and then looking for changes in the particles' observed temperature, the probe can determine what chemicals are present.</p><p>The findings of these studies demonstrate that Jupiter's atmosphere is more complicated than previously thought. Given how we already knew about the storms larger than <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Red_Spot" target="_blank">Earth</a>, temperatures that swing between extremes in different layers of the atmosphere, and winds that blow at 100 meters per <a href="http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~showman/publications/ingersolletal-2004.pdf" target="_blank">second</a>, that is saying something.</p>
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Astronomers find a planet so hot it's streaming metals into space
This exoplanet is 10 times hotter than any world we measured and shaped like a football.
03 August, 2019
NASA/ESA/J. Olmsted/STScI
- Astronomers study the exoplanet planet WASP-121b that's known as a "hot Jupiter."
- The planet is so hot, metals like iron and magnesium stream off its surface.
- The find is the latest accomplishment using the Hubble Space Telescope.
<p><br></p></div>
<p>For the first time ever, astronomers spotted a planet that is so hot it's leaking heavy metals like iron and magnesium into space. The upper atmosphere of <strong>WASP-121b,</strong> an exoplanet shaped like a football is <strong>10 times hotter</strong> than on any exoplanet we have so far been able to measure. </p><p>Astronomers employed <a href="https://hubblesite.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NASA's Hubble Space Telescope</a> to gauge of the temperature the unusual space body that's about <strong>900 light-years </strong>away from Earth. They found that heavy metals are streaming behind WASP-121b as every 30 hours it orbits its star, which is smaller but hotter than our sun. </p><p>A planet like this one, located outside our solar system, has been called a <strong>'hot Jupiter"</strong> – a class of giant exoplanets full of mostly hydrogen and helium gas. While physically similar to Jupiter, they have much shorter orbital periods which can be just hours or a few days. They are also close to their stars and feature super-high surface temperatures.</p>
<p>WASP-121b is hot even by hot Jupiter standards. With temperatures of about <strong>4,600 degrees Fahrenheit, </strong>the planet is melting metals, which along with lighter materials fly off its surface. </p><p>Being near a star with a massive gravitational pull can also warp such a planet. In the case of WASP-121b, its been stretched out to look like a football.</p>
<p>The study of the planet, published in the <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/issue/1538-3881/158/2" target="_blank"><em>Astronomical Journal</em></a>, was led by<strong> David Sing </strong>of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Heavy metals have been seen in other hot Jupiters before, but only in the lower atmosphere," <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/hubble-uncovers-a-heavy-metal-exoplanet-shaped-like-a-football" target="_blank">said Sing.</a> "So you don't know if they are escaping or not. With WASP-121b, we see magnesium and iron gas so far away from the planet that they're not gravitationally bound."</p><p>Astronomers believe that planets don't start out being hot Jupiters, as it would be hard for them to be formed under such conditions. Instead, they are created elsewhere but over time migrate closer to stars which start pulling away their outer layers. Future tech like the <a href="https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">James Webb Space Telescope</a> will be able to tell us much more about these gigantic space fireballs.</p>
More on the accomplishments of the Hubble Space Telescope:
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A new theory explains Jupiter’s perplexing origin
A new computer model solves a pair of Jovian riddles.
26 March, 2019
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill)
- Astronomers have wondered how a gas giant like Jupiter could sit in the middle of our solar system's planets.
- Also unexplained has been the pair of asteroid clusters in front of and behind Jupiter in its orbit.
- Putting the two questions together revealed the answer to both.
<p>Jupiter's long been a puzzler to astronomers. Planet formation theory holds that a gas giant forms far away from its star then moves inward over time until it's in a tight orbit around the sun. Jupiter, though, sits right in the middle of our solar system's planets, between Mars and Saturn. And that's not all that's odd: There's an unexpectedly asymmetrical pair of asteroid clusters — known as the Trojan asteroids — preceding and trailing Jupiter in its orbit. The group in front is 50% larger than the one in back. The most widely accepted idea was that Jupiter formed near the Sun and moved outwards.</p><p>That's now been turned on its head by a team of scientists from Lund University who ran a series of models to try to identify a plausible origin story for Jupiter. They discovered that the planet and its clusters would be where they are under only one scenario: Jupiter forming way out near Uranus — as gas giants are supposed to do, after all — and moving slowly toward the Sun, attracting and accreting the asteroids that now form its core, with the leftovers trailing behind. Lead author Simona Pirani says, "This is the first time we have proof that Jupiter was formed a long way from the Sun and then migrated to its current orbit." Including the mystery of the asymmetrical Trojans in the simulations was the key.</p>
Modeling history
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTMxNDk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyODc4NjA3N30.koGt1vUoN2VSOsRScJ_B8UnRCZK4LQcFYG0xUbUWlTs/img.jpg?width=980" id="839f3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="19bf62e4b6679f27b3942fc59c549844" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Jupiter, right in the middle of everything.
(Christos Georghiou/Shutterstock)
<p>The model that lands Jupiter where it is today, along with its thousand of Trojans, begins four times further away from the Sun than Jupiter currently orbits, just inside of Uranus' orbit. Jupiter first took form about 4.5 billion years back as an icy planetary seedling, an ice asteroid, no bigger than Earth. Somewhere between two and three million years later, the future giant began spiraling slowly inward toward the Sun, pulled by gases circulating throughout the solar system. It took about 700,000 years to get where it is now. Along the way, before it developed its gaseous atmosphere and massive size, Jupiter's gravity pulled the Trojans in — the researchers expect Jupiter's core to be composed of materials similar to the Trojans. They're believed to be rich with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982216313410" target="_blank" data-vivaldi-spatnav-clickable="1">dark carbon compounds</a>, and likely rich in water and other volatile materials beneath an outer layer of dust.</p>Lucy in the sky with Trojans
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTMxNDk5My9vcmlnaW4uZ2lmIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTExMjA4MH0.Pk0uf75_KhddEEadiTW1DbSRYXL_DbD_tjY1y27ED4o/img.gif?width=980" id="d5406" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0ef4cb87da4761b500f6f2b935c5a3be" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Trojan clusters held in place by the Sun and Jupiter
(Astronomical Institute of CAS/Petr Scheirich)
<p>In October 2021, NASA plans to launch its <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/lucy-the-first-mission-to-jupiter-s-trojans" target="_blank" data-vivaldi-spatnav-clickable="1">Lucy mission</a> to study the Trojans. It's believed that they're very old time capsules from the universe of four billion years ago. The craft will study seven of them: one from the solar system's <a href="http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/m/main+asteroid+belt" target="_blank" data-vivaldi-spatnav-clickable="1">main asteroid belt</a>, and the remaining six from the clusters leading and following Jupiter in its orbit.</p><p>Those two Trojan groups are held in place at stable <a href="https://www.space.com/30302-lagrange-points.html" target="_blank" data-vivaldi-spatnav-clickable="1">LaGrange</a> points by the combined gravitation pull of the Sun and Jupiter acting together as a single centrifugal force acting upon them.</p><p>NASA has high hopes for the mission as chance to get a closeup look at the type of materials from which our planetary bodies formed.</p><p>Meanwhile, Jupiter's seeming a little bit less mysterious now, at least in terms of its origin. It may also be that ice giants Uranus and Neptune, as well as Saturn, have a similar history.</p>Why are so many objects in space shaped like discs?
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A Trip from the Sun to Jupiter at the Speed of Light. Bring a Sandwich.
Watch what it might look like to travel from the sun to Jupiter at the speed of light.
29 June, 2017
If you lived here, you’d be home by now (ALPHONSE SWINEHEART)
<p class="p1">Douglas Adams said it in <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780345453747&aff=robbyberman%22%3EShop%20Indie%20Bookstores%3C/a%3E" target="_blank"><span class="s1"><em>Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy</em></span></a>, and he wasn’t wrong:</p> <blockquote><p class="p2"><em>Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.</em></p></blockquote> <p class="p1">Alphonse Swineheart has made a video that shows what a “quick” trip from the sun to Jupiter would be like for a photon. It’s just a short hop: just 807 <em>million</em> kilometers, halfway across our solar system. By “quick,” we mean at the speed of light, the greatest speed at which many believe anything can travel.</p> <p class="p1">One thing “quick” doesn’t mean here is “fast.” It takes:</p> <ul class="ee-ul"> </ul><li class="li3">3:12 minutes to get to Mercury</li> <li class="li1">6:00 minutes to get to Venus</li> <li class="li1">8:18 minutes to get to Earth</li> <li class="li1">12:39 minutes to get to Mars</li> <li class="li4">43:16 minutes to get to Jupiter</li> <p class="p1">Watch this in full screen if you can.</p> <p class="flex-video"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/117815404" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="98dabd4bf345d526941bb3a4d71bf5e0"></iframe></p> <p class="p1">When you consider that this is just making our way halfway across our own celestial neighborhood, you have to wonder how interstellar travel would be possible at all. Swineheart says he cheated a little by not considering how relativity might bend space and so on. Even so, traveling to other solar systems and galaxies would clearly require some means of getting from place to place we haven’t yet discovered. </p> <p class="p1">The music is Steve Reich’s "Music for 18 Musicians,“ performed by <a href="http://www.eighthblackbird.org/" target="_blank"><span class="s1">Eighth Blackbird</span></a>.</p>
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NASA Discovers Why Saturn's Moon Enceladus May Be the Best Place to Look for Alien Life
NASA scientists discover what two places in the solar system might have favorable conditions for alien life.
16 April, 2017
An illustration of an image from the Cassini spacecraft of Enceladus' south pole, showcasing its icy plume. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
<p class="p1">NASA scientists announced its <a href="https://youtu.be/-nzaFDkDU7c" target="_blank">Cassini</a> spacecraft found evidence that the ocean on <strong>Enceladus</strong>, one of Saturn’s 62 moons, may contain all the ingredients necessary for the emergence of life.</p> <p class="p1">Cassini flew through plumes of gas bursting out from under the ice covering the oceans and detected a clear presence of molecular <strong>hydrogen</strong>. This might indicate the existence of <strong>hydrothermal vents</strong> on the moon’s ocean floor. Such vents would be similar to Earth’s hydrothermal vents where <a href="http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/is-this-where-all-life-on-earth-began" target="_blank">some scientists believe</a> life on our planet originated. </p> <p class="p1">In the new findings, <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6334/155" target="_blank">described the journal <em>Science</em></a>, scientists consider the possibility of a chemical reaction called <em>methanogenesis</em> taking place in the moon’s underwater vents. This reaction has been <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8882-methane-making-microbes-appeared-early-on-earth/" target="_blank">shown to be crucial</a> to the development of microbial life by providing an energy source for the microbes.</p> <p class="p1">The researchers cannot at this point conclusively state if <em>methanogenesis </em>is indeed taking place under Enceladus’s ice. It is also possible that this moon may be too young to have undergone the life-creating process. </p> <blockquote>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">“Although we can’t detect life, we’ve found that there’s a food source there for it. It would be like a candy store for microbes,” <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-missions-provide-new-insights-into-ocean-worlds-in-our-solar-system" target="_blank">said</a> the study’s lead author Hunter Waite</span><span class="s2"> of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.</span></p>
</blockquote> <p class="p3"><span class="s2"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQwOTgyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzY3MzE2Nn0.bEPkDn41pK7vBy6vY5AQQ4EAEpKOqhH9gwTnd3YJAXg/img.jpg?width=980" id="f6c1b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1c1efb88ff19a17e6c54b0e115cd8841" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><br></span></p> <div class="caption"><em>This is how Cassini scientists think water interacts with rock at the bottom of the ocean of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, producing hydrogen gas. </em><em>Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech</em></div> <p class="p5"><span class="s1">Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, was also optimistic about the scope of Cassini’s current achievement.</span></p> <blockquote>
<p class="p7"><span class="s1">"This is the closest we've come, so far, to identifying a place with some of the ingredients needed for a habitable environment," <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-missions-provide-new-insights-into-ocean-worlds-in-our-solar-system" target="_blank"><span class="s3">stated Zurbuchen</span></a>.</span></p>
</blockquote> <p class="p9">Since 2004, the Cassini spacecraft provided no shortage of discoveries. As its head of imaging science Carolyn Porco <a href="http://www.sen.com/feature/an-interview-with-cassini-scientist-carolyn-porco.html" target="_blank">explained</a>, Cassini conducted over a 100 more “close flyby maneuvers” than have been done so far in the entire planetary program. </p> <p class="p9">It has given us an unprecedented understanding of Saturn, with stunning new images, insights into its rings, atmosphere and moons. </p> <p class="p9">In 2005, the spacecraft landed the Huygens probe on <strong>Titan</strong>, Saturn’s largest moon, a historic first for landing human machines in the outer solar system. The probe discovered a wealth of information, including an underground super-salty ocean. <span class="s4">The Cassini-Huygens mission was carried out in cooperation between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.</span></p> <p class="p12"><span class="s1">Here’s a film made by compiling imaging data from Cassini and the probe’s instruments as it descended towards Titan:</span></p> <p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="54961a0a547808f6152d46cc9e438190"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TMxL3ZhO8A8?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span></p> <p class="p9">Cassini also came amazingly close to Jupiter, providing us with the best photos we have of the gas giant.</p> <p class="p9"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODQwOTgzMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTIxNDY4Mn0.p0QEpkpNkDAhHiwr0v1AZ79LrWauC4k1CB3J8R0-ilk/img.jpg?width=980" id="4e24c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1d197beca099203494b78e6082a81d97" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p> <p class="p9"><em>Composite photo of Jupiter, comprised of images taken by Cassini on December 29, 2000. Credit: NASA.</em></p> <p class="p9">The spacecraft will be decommissioned on September 15, 2017 by being plunged to burn in Saturn’s atmosphere. The reason for just a drastic demise lies in the fear that Cassini will soon run out of fuel and crash into one of Saturn’s moons, the ones we now think may contain life. It’s safer for it to burn up on entry than possibly contaminate the moons.</p> <p class="p9">On its way down, the spacecraft will transmit more data and images. These will include new maps of Saturn’s magnetic and gravity fields, and details on the composition of the planet’s rings.</p> <blockquote>
<p class="p13"><span class="s1">"It’s inspiring, adventurous and romantic — a fitting end to this thrilling story of discovery," <a href="https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/overview/" target="_blank"><span class="s5">wrote NASA</span></a></span><span class="s6">.</span></p>
</blockquote> <p class="p15"><span class="s1">Watch this beautiful new film from NASA on Cassini’s final journey:</span></p> <p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eee3741f9a67f7008ed25b5f1a1ae815"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xrGAQCq9BMU?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span></p> <p class="p15"><span class="s1">Notably, another NASA team just <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aa67f8" target="_blank"><span class="s5">published findings</span></a> on a different ocean world that might have some form of life. Their paper on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope program showed new evidence of water vapor plumes found on Jupiter’s moon <strong>Europa</strong>. In fact, they think they spotted a huge 62-mile-high plume over Europa’s equator, in the same place a plume candidate was spotted in 2014.</span> </p> <p class="p15"><span class="s1">These warm plumes are thought to be potential hosts for life. Considering that Europa is billions of years older than Enceladus, the chances for life to have emerged there could actually be greater.</span></p> <p class="p15"><span class="s1"><img alt="Europa" height="1147" src="http://assets3.bigthink.com/system/tinymce_assets/5314/original/europa.jpg?1492329704" title="Europa" width="1720"></span></p> <p class="p15"><em><span class="s1">Europa. Credit: NASA</span></em></p>
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