Washington

For many years, scientists have observed mysterious flashes of light beaming out of Venus, leading them to believe that it is nothing more than lightning. However, a new study has dispelled this notion.

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The study, published in the ‘Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets’, has proved that the mysterious lights emanating out of the gas giant are in fact meteors burning up in the planet's atmosphere.

The discovery was made by the scientists at Arizona State University.

Interestingly, NASA in a statement in 2007 said that Venus might even have more lightning than Earth.

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The study notes that the lightning on Venus is "either ubiquitous, rare, or non-existent, depending on how one interprets diverse observations."

One reason the researchers don't think it is lightning is because of Venus's radio silence.

One way the lightning is monitored on Earth is by detecting naturally occurring radio waves that are emitted by lightning.

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In the past when the Cassini Probe and Parker Solar Probe probed the "lightning" on Venus while flying past the planet, neither of them detected radio signals.

Flashes of light are in fact meteors 

The researchers at Arizona State University counted the number of flashes observed at both the Steward Observatory and Japan's Akatsuki orbiter.

An estimated 10,000 to 100,000 flashes were observed per year, with researchers concluding that they resemble potential meteor strikes, according to Phys.org.

Additionally, since Venus has sulfuric acid clouds instead of water vapour, which may not even be capable of producing lightning, scientists argued that these factors could indicate that the frequent flashes aren't lightning at all.

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"Lightning is likely too rare to pose a hazard to missions that pass through or dwell in the clouds of Venus," the study said.

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 "Likewise, small meteoroids burn up at altitudes of 100 km, roughly twice as high above the surface as the clouds, and also would not pose a hazard."

Venus has continued to capture the curiosity of scientists for many years, and attempts to land a spacecraft on the planet since the 1980s haven’t come to fruition.

Now, NASA is planning to send the DAVINCI probe to study Venus' clouds and geology in 2031 and hopefully retrieve other data when its atmospheric descent probe makes contact with the surface.

(With inputs from agencies)

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