is there lightening on other planets?

Question

i heard that "heat" lightening is not caused by heat but is lightening on other planets. how does this work with different atmospheric pressures on other planets?

Answer 1

Sure

Answer 2

Lightning isn't entirely dependent upon pressure. Lightning occurs because there is a static electric potential difference between the atmosphere and the ground. This happens more in certain weather conditions, but not exclusively.

Any planet with an atmosphere could generate lightning, and it happens quite frequently on Venus, Mars and Jupiter. It probably happens on other planets as well, but I'm not sure about those.

I've never heard of 'heat lightning' though...

Answer 3

Lightning throughout the Solar System from 4-12 lightening query of Wikipedia:

Lightning requires the electrical breakdown of gas, so it cannot exist in a visual form in the vacuum of space. However, lightning has been observed within the atmospheres of other planets, such as Venus and Jupiter. Lightning on Jupiter is estimated to be 100 times as powerful as, but fifteen times less frequent than, that which occurs on Earth. Lightning on Venus is still a controversial subject after decades of study. During the Soviet Venera and U.S. Pioneer missions of the 1970s and 80s, signals suggesting lightning may be present in the upper atmosphere were detected [7]. However, recently the Cassini-Huygens mission fly-by of Venus detected no signs of lightning at all.

Answer 4

Hmm, let me see if I can untangle this a bit for you.

Heat lightning is often seen when static charges build up in the atmosphere- which occurs a lot during hot, dry months. Thus the term, 'heat lightning'.

Other planets, meanwhile, do have storms and lightning. It has been recorded on Saturn and Jupiter, and in fact the red eye of Jupiter is a giant storm.

Lightning on another planet has little if anything to do with lightning on Earth.

I hope this helps!

Answer 5

Yes there is lightning on different planets. Jupiter is one you may be familiar with. It has a large storm system, although I'm not exactly sure how it works I know for a fact that there is lightning. But I believe it has something to do with the electricity, and heating system of the planet, that causes it.
You should probably do a google search and find out exactly what causes it.

Answer 6

It sort of depends on what you mean by "lightning". On Earth, lightning
basically results from the motion of air and its friction against the
ground, clouds, etc. As the air moves and "rubs" against something, it
tends to pick up electrical charge in one place, and maybe drop it off
someplace else. This is just like getting static electricity by rubbing
a balloon against your head, or shuffling your feet on a carpet. Then,
when the difference in electrical charge becomes large enough between
two places becomes large enough, an electrical spark jumps across, balancing
the charge difference and creating lightning.

Lightning in this form requires that you have weather, so it
can't happen in outer space, which is very nearly a perfect vacuum. However,
it certainly would happen on other planets. For example, we're pretty
sure that Jupiter, which has very violent weather compared to the Earth,
has lots of lightning in its atmosphere.

One can also imagine other possibilities, though, for generating
lightning-like electrical discharge without having weather. For instance,
it has been known for awhile that large bursts of radio static are coming
from the planet Jupiter. These would have to be created by some sort
of electrical phenomenon (on Earth, if you've ever been listening to
the radio during a thunderstorm, you'd hear something similar). One
theory of this has to do with Jupiter's moon, Io. Despite being quite
small, Io has a lot of volcanic activity, created by heat generated
from the gravitational stress of being so close to the giant planet Jupiter.
When the volcanoes erupt, they not only spew out lava, but also hot
gas and ions. Ions are atoms which are missing one or more electrons,
and so carry an electrical charge. Because Io is small, and has only
a weak gravitational field, these ions easily escape into the space
around the moon, where they are trapped in a sort of donut shaped region
by Jupiter's magnetic field. Now, as Io orbits around Jupiter, it
picks up electrical charge from this ion donut. At some point, the
difference in electrical charge between Io and Jupiter becomes large
enough, and a massive bolt of "lightning" would be discharged between
them (I believe this is only one theory, though.)

Answer 7

Hi. "Heat lightening" is just when the sky lights up because of distant thunderstorms. They are so far away that you can't hear the thunder, but the light from the lightning bolt reflects from the haze above you. The planet Jupiter has some pretty intensive lightning storms but this is not visible on Earth without a large telescope.. Hope this helps!

Answer 8

Different atmospheres produce different phenomena, and in our solar system there would be lightening type occurances on only three planets most likely we have only discovered a handful of other planets, it is only speculation but the best guess is not enough or too much gravitation occurance to allow the demonstration of a lightening bolt.

Answer 9

No, heat lightning isn't coming from other planets. We had some just a few days ago. A REALLY hot day, and we got some lightning, and just a little rain. It cooled things down a lot, though. I was surprised. But yes, lightning does happen on the other planets. Voyager recorded quite a lot of it while passing Jupiter.

Answer 10

Yes, there is lightening on other planets! When the Russians sent one of their space craft down to Venus the sounds of the lightening was recorded and transmitted back to Earth. That is only one of the Planets. There is much "weather" on the other planets but Venus is the only one I know has lightening! Venus is very inhospitable. The lightening may or may not be caused by heat - Venus is extremely hot and with a very high atmospheric pressure (enough to crush a tin can)!
When you speak of "heat" lightening I presume you are speaking of that phenomenon happening on Earth - am I correct? This occurs on Earth only, unless I'm saddly mistaken (and I may be). I haven't heard of that particular activity occurring on other planets.

Answer 11

Heat lightning actually has very little to do with the temperature. The term heat in heat lightning is there because it is usually associated with warm temperatures. Usually, "heat" lightning is something you see but do not hear. This is because the storm is too far away and the sound does not travel all the way to the observer. We, by no means, see heat lightning as a result of lightning on other planets. there is no way we could see the lightning happening on other planets, unless we have a powerful telescope. But yes, lightning does occur on other planets. But we don't see it.