European Space Agency provesArticle from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print
VENUS is looking a bit more Earth-like with frequent bursts of lightning confirmed.
For nearly three decades, since a 1978 NASA probe showed signs of electrical activity, astronomers have said Venus probably had lightning.
However experts weren't sure because of signal interference.
Now, a magnetic antenna on the European Space Agency's Venus Express probe has proved the lightning was real.
It is cloud-to-cloud and about 55km above the surface, said University of California professor C.T. Russell, lead author of a paper to be published in today's Nature journal.
Bursts of electrical energy from lightning are something scientists have long theorised could provide the spark of life in primordial ooze . . . but not on Venus.
"If life was ever something serious to talk about on Venus, it would be early in its history, not in its current state," Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not involved in this research, said.
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