A mission NASA might kill is still returning fascinating science from Jupiter

Over the course of 12 passes, Juno detected 613 microwave pulses from lightning, with power ranging from about the same as a lightning bolt on Earth to at least 100 times more. There is uncertainty in the interplanetary comparison, so it’s possible Jupiter’s lightning flashes could have been a million times more powerful than those on Earth.

Lightning on Jupiter is likely sparked by a mechanism similar to what happens inside Earth’s atmosphere, where ice crystals within clouds obtain an electrical charge, and voltage differentials lead to cloud-to-cloud or cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.

There are notable differences between the planets, too. There is no true surface on Jupiter, and ice

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