Jupiter Rains Ammonia Slushballs in Electric Storms

By University of California - Berkeley
April 18, 2025



This illustration uses data obtained by NASA’s Juno mission to depict high-altitude electrical storms on Jupiter. Juno’s sensitive Stellar Reference Unit camera detected unusual lightning flashes on Jupiter’s dark side during the spacecraft’s close flybys of the planet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt


A bizarre hailstorm of icy “mushballs” — slushy mixtures of ammonia and water — has been confirmed on Jupiter, where intense lightning strikes illuminate these frozen slushballs as they rain from towering storms.

Using the first 3D visualizations of Jupiter’s troposphere, researchers revealed most weather is surprisingly shallow, yet deep convective systems punch through to unmix ammonia and water, dragging them far below cloud tops. This overturns the idea of a well‑mixed gas giant, with mushballs acting like subterranean conveyor belts that trap and transport chemicals, reshaping our understanding of giant‑planet atmospheres.

Mushball Slushstorms Unveiled

Picture a giant Slushee™ made of ammonia and water, wrapped in a hard shell of ice. Now imagine these icy slushballs — called “mushballs” — falling through Jupiter’s atmosphere like hailstones, lit up by powerful flashes of lightning.

According to planetary scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, this dramatic weather isn’t just science fiction—it’s actually happening on Jupiter. These mushball hailstorms, complete with lightning, may also occur on other gas giants in our solar system, such as Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—and possibly on gas planets throughout the galaxy.

The concept of mushballs was first proposed in 2020 to explain puzzling variations in the levels of ammonia gas observed in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere. These irregularities were detected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft and confirmed by ground-based radio telescopes.

More:
https://scitechdaily.com/jupiter-rains-ammonia-slushballs-in-electric-storms/