New thunderstorms wider than Earth are spewing out green lightning on Jupiter — and could make one of the gas giant's massive bands disappear

A photo of Jupiter with two white storms (circled) in one of the planet's large brown bands.

New photos have revealed a pair of gigantic white thunderstorms raging in one of Jupiter's large reddish brown belts. The swirling storms, which are likely spewing giant green lightning bolts through the gas giant's cloudy atmosphere, could end up diluting the belt's rusty color, drastically changing the planet's appearance, experts say.

Astrophotographer Michael Karrer captured the stunning new images on Nov. 30 using an 8-inch Celestron telescope from near his home in Austria. The photos show two large white patches sitting side by side in the gas giant's Southern Equatorial Belt (SEB) — an enormous dark band of clouds that spins around Jupiter as it rotates.