Lights on Venus that scientists thought were from lightning may be something else entirely, a new study has found.
If they aren't flashes of lightning, what could they be?Mysterious flashing lights on Venus that scientists initially thought were from lightning, may be something else entirely., researchers out of Arizona State University have suggested that flashes of light detected during missions to Venus may not be lightning strikes, as some scientists have posited, but instead could be tens of thousands of meteors burning up in its ultra-hot atmosphere.
Missions conducted by Europe, the US, and the former Soviet Union all detected signals believed to be lightning. Subsequent missions like NASA's, however, "searched for but failed to find radio signals from lightning," according to the new paper, which left scientists stumped. Although "artists depicting the atmosphere of Venus love to include lightning bolts to emphasize its hellish environment," it seems unlikely, the ASU scientists contend, that lightning is the culprit behind the strange light observations coming from the planet.
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