Abstract
Lightning is present in all solar system planets. Discharge phenomena
occurs in dust devils on Mars, and on Earth also in the mineral clouds
of volcano plumes. Cloud formation outside our solar system is possible
in objects with much higher temperatures then cloud formation on Earth
or Jupiter: Brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets form clouds made of
mixed materials and of a distribution of grain sizes. These clouds are
globally neutral obeying dust-gas charge equilibrium which is, on short
timescales, inconsistent with the observation of stochastic ionization
events of the solar system planets. We argue that a significant volume
of the clouds in brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets is susceptible to
local discharge events.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 8 |
| Journal | EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2011 |