Jupiter's weather forecast: cloudy with a chance of nukes: The planet's lightning storms can unleash the force of multiple nuclear weapons every minute.

This article focuses on new findings about the extraordinary power of lightning on Jupiter, revealed by data from NASA's Juno spacecraft. Researchers determined that individual lightning bolts on Jupiter are 100 to 10,000 times more energetic than those on Earth, with some bolts releasing energy equivalent to one-sixth of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Using Juno's microwave radiometer to detect radio waves from lightning, scientists studied massive storms up to 3,000 kilometers wide, observing multiple flashes per second. The study highlights the role of such powerful lightning in driving complex chemical reactions, which may be important for prebiotic chemistry, and situates Jupiter’s lightning within the broader context of planetary atmospheric phenomena. [Extracted from the article]