Events like these have never been observed on another world — until now.
"UVS was designed to characterize Jupiter's beautiful northern and southern lights," Rohini Giles, Juno scientist and lead author, said in. "But we discovered UVS images that not only showed Jovian aurora, but also a bright flash of UV light over in the corner where it wasn't supposed to be."
"The more our team looked into it, the more we realized Juno may have detected a TLE on Jupiter," he added. The flashes resemble TLEs we experience on Earth in numerous ways. According to Giles, these events on Earth, including "sprites," which large-scale electrical charges occurring above thunderstorms, and "elves" , which are massive halos of light occurring around 100 km above thunderstorms, "appear reddish in color due to their interaction with nitrogen in the upper atmosphere.
On a different world, these rare events would look quite different. "But on Jupiter, the upper atmosphere mostly consists of hydrogen, so they would likely appear either blue or pink." "Now that we know what we are looking for, it will be easier to find them at Jupiter and on other planets," Giles said. "And comparing sprites and elves from Jupiter with those here on Earth will help us better understand electrical activity in planetary atmospheres."
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