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Name: joan of arc
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
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Date: 1993 - 1999
Question:
Is there thunder and lightening in outer space ?

Replies:
Lightning is a huge electrical discharge; thunder is the sound waves produced by the very rapid expansion (due to heating) of the atmosphere through which the lightning passes. There is probably not lightning and certainly not thunder in the near-vacuum of space; however, lightning has been observed (by space probes) on Jupiter, and there is evidence of lightning on Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn's moon Titan. No doubt wherever there is lightning on any of these bodies there is also what we would call thunder (but probably no inhabitant to hear it!)

RC Winther


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