Aug 30, 2019
Venus is a highly energetic domain.
The European Space Agency’s Venus Express was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 9, 2005. It subsequently entered orbit around Venus on April 11, 2006. Its mission was designed to answer several questions about the enigmatic planet:
1. Why are some areas on the surface so reflective?
2. Is there volcanic activity on the planet?
3. How do the complex global dynamics of the planet work?
4. What causes the super-fast atmospheric rotation and the hurricane-force winds?
5. What maintains the double atmospheric vortex at the poles.
Coupled with information collected by the Magellan Mission, the ESA program collected enough data to study Venus for years to come. However, mission scientists were unaware of how the electrical environment of Venus influences the geologic processes and the bizarre terrain.
Many of the mountains on Venus glow brightly in radar. The reason for the strange brightness is a mystery to astrophysicists. However, from an Electric Universe perspective, they exhibit a form of “St. Elmo’s Fire”, a plasma phenomenon, similar to static electricity. Since charged plasma reflects radar like a mirror, the high albedo of the mountains could be from a similar electric discharge.
Large areas of Venus are cut by deep grooves and parallel fractures. NASA and ESA mission specialists both identified them as the remains of volcanic upwelling. As they speculate, at some time in the past, underground magma partially melted and swelled the surface. After a period of time, the magma subsided, the surface cooled and contracted, leaving behind a network of fractures. However, they more strongly resemble lightning scars called, Lichtenberg figures.
Other complex structures called “coronae” are oval formations characterized by rings of ridges and troughs that cut through radial cracks. Coronae are often found in association with “pancake volcanoes” – wide, flat domes that cover hundreds of square kilometers. Electric Universe advocates explain such structures as the result of gigantic lightning discharges. Electric forces pull material toward the center of the vortex as they carve out craters and channels through the surrounding area. After the electric arc passes, a raised mound of debris will be left behind. Some of the raised mounds can be very large, such as the Eistla Region on Venus.
How Venus formed, and how its surface was blasted and abraded, must include the ways that electricity behaves in various circumstances. In Venus’ high density atmospheres, electric arcs can carve out topography similar to that found elsewhere in the Solar System, but with unique attributes. For example, highly energetic discharges leave behind entrenched formations, as well as structures called, “arachnoids”.
Realizing that all the planets and moons are probably marked by catastrophic events from a recent past will guide research toward a more appropriate understanding of why they exhibit such conventionally odd morphology.
Perhaps data from the new Da Vinci mission will help provide a more accurate picture of this Medusa-like goddess.
Stephen Smith
The Thunderbolts Picture of the Day is generously supported by the Mainwaring Archive Foundation.
