Behind the Black 3/23/2026
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/juno-data-suggests-lightning-on-jupiter-is-a-hundred-to-a-million-times-more-powerful-than-lightning-on-earth/The uncertainty of science: Using data from the orbiter Juno as it passed multiple times above a storm on Jupiter, scientists now believe lightning bolts on Jupiter could be a hundred to a million times more powerful than lightning bolts on Earth.
Juno made 12 passes over isolated storms during that period, and was close enough on four of them to measure microwave static from lightning. The flashes averaged three per second during these passes; on one flyover, Juno detected 206 separate pulses of microwave radiation. Of a total of 613 pulses measured, Wong calculated that the power ranged from about that of a lightning bolt on Earth to 100 or more times the power of an Earth bolt. Because he compared Earth lightning emissions at one radio wavelength to Jupiter lightning emissions at a different wavelength, there’s some uncertainty in the comparison, Wong cautioned. Based on one study of lightning radio emissions on Earth, Jupiter’s bolts could have been a million times more powerful than those on Earth.
Lots of uncertainty and assumptions in these conclusions, but they are not only not surprising, they fit earlier data collected before Juno.
M Puckett
March 23, 2026 at 1:40 pm
I am sure of one thing. I do NOT want to land on Jupiter!
