Outside of Earth
The clouds of Venus are capable of producing lightning much like the clouds on Earth. The lightning rate is at least half of that on Earth. A thin layer of water clouds appears to underlie the ammonia layer within Jupiter's atmosphere, where thunderstorms evidenced by flashes of lightning have been detected. (Water is a polar molecule that can carry a charge, so it is capable of creating the charge separation needed to produce lightning.) These electrical discharges can be up to a thousand times as powerful as lightning on the Earth. The water clouds can form thunderstorms driven by the heat rising from the interior.
Read more about this topic: Thunderstorm
Famous quotes containing the word earth:
“There’s something wonderfully exciting about the quiet sing song of an aeroplane overhead with all the guns in creation lighting out at it, and searchlights feeling their way across the sky like antennae, and the earth shaking snort of the bombs and the whimper of shrapnel pieces when they come down to patter on the roof.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)