Mysterious ‘elves’ and ‘sprites’ seen in Jupiter’s atmosphere

Strange “sprites” or “elves” have been seen on Jupiter from Nasa’s Juno mission.

The supernaturally-named phenomena refer to transient luminous events – bright, unpredictable, and bizzaire flashes of light.

It is the first time such events have ever been seen on another world, Nasa says.

The lights on the solar system’s largest planets were predicted by scientists, who thought that they would be observed in Jupiter’s liquid-like atmosphere.

They were discovered by scientists who were working with the ultraviolet spectrograph instrument on Juno, a space probe orbiting the planet.