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Monday 16 January 2017

The Universe in 101 words: What's lightening like on Jupiter?

Above: Jupiter - still owning it.
The biggest lightening storms are found on Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system. 

Well, I guess that makes sense. 

Jupiter's bolts are ten times more powerful than terrestrial bolts. With no surface they simply strike within the clouds, like sheet lightening on Earth - so you'd seldom see the whole bolt, just a diffuse flash. They spring from Jupiter's water cloud layer, below its clouds of ammonia. 

Below the clouds the hydrogen atmosphere gets hotter and thicker, becoming an ocean of ‘supercritical fluid. Over that 'ocean' the clouds form an immense roof, punctuated by the lightening...



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