Shocking find by NASA Parker Solar Probe; Lightning on Venus may be meteors crashing

tech.hindustantimes.com:

NASA is running various space missions to find out the secrets of the universe. One of the major missions of the space agency is the Parker Solar probe. The spacecraft has been tasked with orbiting the Sun to find out crucial data around sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CME), and solar storms. However, in its journey, it routinely flies past Venus. And this has allowed Parker Solar Probe to possibly find the reason behind one of the biggest phenomena that has confused scientists for years. It found that the lightning on Venus may not actually be lightning at all. In fact, they are likely to be meteors that are striking the planet and are burning up in its atmosphere.

The revelation came in 2021 when the Parker Solar Probe executed a routine flyby of Venus, utilizing the planet's gravitational force to adjust its trajectory towards its primary celestial subject. The spacecraft is in a highly elliptical orbit around the Sun, reaching its aphelion during the course of the mission initially at Earth and eventually closing to the orbit of Venus, reveals Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

According to a report by Space.com, the lead author of a new study published on September 29 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Harriet George, a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, expressed, "Parker Solar Probe is a very capable spacecraft. Everywhere it goes, it finds something new." The probe's data, as outlined in a recent paper, challenges the conventional wisdom that the flashes of light observed on Venus signify lightning bolts. This finding suggests that while Venus may have some lightning, it might not be as prevalent as previously believed.

The debate