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Cover author: Michał Kałużny http://astrofotografia.pl/

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NASA captures rare moment Jupiter is struck by GREEN lightning bolt (www.dailymail.co.uk)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by slicedcheesegremlin@kbin.social to c/space@kbin.social

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NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been probing Jupiter since 2016, captured the moment lightning crackled in the gas giant's stormy atmosphere at its north pole.

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[–] RubberColby@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Last time the storm was measured accurately was in April of 2017. It was approximately 10,160 miles in diameter. Rhode Island, at it's widest, is 48 miles wide. Using pixels, I measured the storm at 400 pixels at it's widest, meaning that one pixel is about 25 miles. The green part appears to be 11 pixels at it's widest. Meaning about 280 miles in diameter. You could fit between 5-6 Rhode Islands in the green part.

Bare in mind, I could be wrong about this because I'm an idiot lol.

[–] swope@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Seems reasonable to me!

I said Rhodes Islands mainly as a joke, but it seems I picked some ergonomic units for this case.

What an incredible image and unimaginably powerful lightning!

[–] slake-moth@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This can be a little confusing.
You may have mistaken the Red Spot and the cyclones near Jupiter's North Pole. The largest of the cyclones (the polar one) is only ~1,864 Miles in diameter.

Even though the southern cyclones are larger, here is an interesting comparison of the US and Texas compared to those.