Juno spacecraft data suggest lightning on Jupiter is much more common than we thought—but it congregates near the poles, not the equator as on Earth. Christopher Intagliata reports.

“朱诺号”探测器的数据显示，闪电在木星上比我们想象的更加常见——但是集中在极地而非赤道，与地球不同。

撰文/播音 克里斯多佛•因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）

翻译 许楠

审校 潘磊

Thirty-nine years ago, Voyager 1 swung by Jupiter on its journey to interstellar space. As it did, it picked up spooky low-frequency radio signals

三十九年前，旅行者1号在漫长的星际航行中与木星擦肩而过，意外扑捉到了听起来怪异悚然的低频无线信号（片段：航行者1号的啸啸声）。

The whistlers, as they're known, were radio broadcasts from unusual, natural antennas: lightning bolts, which act like radio transmitters, with current moving through a channel.

事实上，这个啸啸声是罕见的自然天线发出的无线电波：轰鸣的闪电，可作为无线电发射器，电流在其中穿行。

Along with photos of the dark side of the planet, the whistlers confirmed the existence of lightning on Jupiter. But the limited observations made it hard to pin down where electrical storms gathered… and the bolts were thought to be rare, compared to Earth.

结合木星背面拍到的照片来看，这个啸啸声证实了木星上闪电的存在。但是由于观测受限而难以确定雷暴是在哪里聚集的……与地球相比，那里闪电发生曾被认为非常罕见。

Now the Juno spacecraft has detected the first high-frequency radio signals, and 1,600 new whistlers

现在“朱诺号”探测器收到了第一个高频无线信号和1,600个新的啸啸声（片段：“朱诺号”的啸啸声）……，这些都表示，木星上的闪电比科学家想象的更加频繁。大部分和地球上的闪电非常相近。木星上的放电现象也会发生在带液态水的云团和其他带冰晶的云团之间，与地球上云团间闪电的原理一样。

The findings appear in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy. [Ivana Kolmašová et al., Discovery of rapid whistlers close to Jupiter implying lightning rates similar to those on Earth and Shannon Brown et al., Prevalent lightning sferics at 600 megahertz near Jupiter’s poles]

该研究被发表于《自然》和《自然天文》杂志中。[Ivana Kolmašová et al., Discovery of rapid whistlers close to Jupiter implying lightning rates similar to those on Earth and Shannon Brown et al., Prevalent lightning sferics at 600 megahertz near Jupiter’s poles]

There is one twist to this Jovian weather story: Jupiter's lightning storms congregate near the planet's poles, not its equator—the opposite of Earth. A detail that makes this familiar phenomenon still seem a bit otherworldly.

有关于这颗巨大行星的天气故事有一个转折：木星雷暴聚集在星球的极地而非赤道——而地球恰巧相反。这个细节倒为这熟悉的自然现象增添了一些神秘色彩。

—Christopher Intagliata

——克里斯多佛•因塔利亚塔