First Star I See Tonight
May 29, 2009

New images from the European Space Agency's Venus Express are said to reveal a "mysterious" chemical that absorbs ultraviolet light. The variation in molecular density causes the Venusian clouds to absorb different frequencies of UV light, creating the bright and dark zones seen in images from space.

Ultraviolet light reveals cloud structures and how the 300-kilometer-per-hour wind creates turbulence and layering within them. Infrared imaging relates the differences in temperature in the cloud tops, as well as how high they are above the surface. The ultraviolet studies indicate that the dark bands in the atmosphere are areas where the temperature is highest, while the bright banding at mid-latitudes exhibits a cooler temperature.

Infrared measurements reveal a surprising fact: the clouds in both the dark and the bright zones on Venus are at approximately the same altitude. A recent study reveals that the different temperatures and dynamic conditions in the clouds are supposed to cause the global ultraviolet display. However, no one knows the exact nature of the chemical that absorbs ultraviolet light.

Could it be that Venus is behaving in a way that consensus opinions do not address? The signals sent back from Venus Express, as well as those from previous missions, are typical of what is seen in a gas discharge tube. The Magellan orbiter detected highly reflective mountain peaks on Venus, prompting one Electric Universe theorist to describe them as wearing coats of "St. Elmo's fire."

Other measurements taken from orbit show that only 2% of sunlight reaches the surface, although landers on the surface saw a landscape lit up as if the sky were glowing. Furthermore, Venus radiates twice the energy it receives from the sun. The atmospheric layers are also uniform in temperature from dayside to nightside, despite the planet's slow rotation.

If Venus’s atmosphere is being heated and driven electrically, what is feeding current into it? The planet has no significant magnetic field and no magnetosphere, but it does possess an ionosphere and a plasma tail with "stringy things" (Birkeland currents). Hannes Alfvén has described Birkeland currents as "power cables" capable of transmitting electrical energy over vast distances. From the Electric Universe perspective, the solar electrical circuit generates a "leakage current" across Venus. The planet and its atmosphere act as a load in the circuit, converting some of the energy into heat, light and motion.

Venus is a charged body immersed in an electrical circuit connected to the Sun, as plasma physicists have known for decades. This means that Venus experiences an invisible cometary style discharge to the solar electrical environment: a plasma tail that astronomers describe as "comet-like." Electrical energy also powers the intense UV airglow, also known as “ashen light.” An electrical explanation for Venus’s anomalous light, heat and atmospheric motion is to be preferred after realizing that the solar system is composed mostly of plasma that can conduct enormous quantities of electricity.

By Stephen Smith