For example, it’s unknown whether Venus might experience a form of lightning, or other type of electrical discharge, in its carbon dioxide–rich atmosphere that isn’t accompanied by flashes of light but could still pose a risk to probes.
Future observations that simultaneously measure the flashes and electromagnetic static on Venus could help resolve the mystery. The team’s analysis “is convincing and does a nice job of establishing a plausible explanation for these flashes,” Byrne says. Overall, these factors and others led Blaske and her colleagues to conclude that meteors could be numerous enough to account for most, if not all, of the flashes expected to occur in Venus’ atmosphere. In part, that’s because Venus is traveling around the sun faster than Earth is.
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But meteors there will be substantially brighter - and thus more noticeable - because they are traveling faster on average: The space rocks zip through Venus’ atmosphere at about 25 kilometers per second, compared with 20.3 kilometers per second for meteoroids entering Earth’s atmosphere. After all, Venus is a slightly smaller cosmic target than Earth. That may seem like too many flashes to all be caused by meteors. Given that data, there are probably between 10,000 and 100,000 of these flashes each year, the researchers report in the September Journal of Geophysical Research : Planets. Two surveys counted the flashes of light: one by a telescope on Arizona’s Mount Bigelow and one by instruments aboard Japan’s Akatsuki orbiter ( SN: 12/8/15). Louis who was not involved in the study, “it’s not clear there is the potential for lightning on Venus” given how little is known about the dynamics of its atmosphere.īlaske, then at Arizona State University in Tempe, and her colleagues wondered whether meteors could be masquerading as lightning on Venus. And, notes Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. And orbiters and Earth-based telescopes have discerned brief, bright flashes in the atmosphere.īut the static and optical flashes have never been detected simultaneously, Blaske says.
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Previous landers on Venus have often detected electromagnetic static similar to the type picked up on AM radio and caused by lightning during thunderstorms on Earth, Blaske says. Planet Granite is accepting walk-ins or feel free to call and schedule an appointment today.
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