2001-07-23 | SCIENCE, MISSIONS
Images Show Jovian Polar Thunderstorms

The face of Jupiter is covered in massive bands of storm clouds, which can last for extended periods of time with very little change in their activity. These thunderstorms give the gassy planet its distinctive appearance. For instance, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, visible with a standard telescope, is actually a massive, 300-year-old thunderstorm three times as wide as Earth. The poles of Jupiter, on the other hand, have a mottled, unstable appearance. Astronomers once assumed that this indicated that the weather in these regions was more chaotic. However, a collection of 1,200 images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft late last year provides evidence to the contrary. The images show that the thunderstorms at Jupiter’s poles are also long-lived and move in an organized manner.

Years ago, the Urey-Miller experiment demonstrated that lightning might form organic compounds such as amino acids, one of the building blocks of life. While Jupiter is thought to be an inhospitable environment for life, lightning on Jupiter may have something to tell us about how organic compounds are created.

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