How It Works

SPRITES IN SPACE

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In common with many weather phenomena, red lightning could in principle occur on other planets that have an atmosphere, not just Earth. It’s been known, for example, that ordinary lightning is a common occurrence in Jupiter’s atmosphere ever since NASA’S Voyager 1 probe flew past the giant planet in 1979. In the case of sprites specifical­ly, researcher­s at Tel Aviv University carried out an experiment in 2011 to test whether they could occur on Jupiter, its neighbouri­ng gas giant Saturn and our own near neighbour Venus. They recreated the atmosphere­s of these planets in their laboratory and passed electrical discharges through them. They found that under the right conditions, sprites could form on all three planets. In the case of Jupiter, the theory was finally confirmed in 2020 when observatio­ns from NASA’S Juno spacecraft showed that both sprites and elves do indeed occur in the planet’s upper atmosphere.

 ?? ?? A NASA illustrati­on showing what a sprite might look like in Jupiter’s atmosphere
A NASA illustrati­on showing what a sprite might look like in Jupiter’s atmosphere

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