Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice (frozen raindrops) bump into each other as they move around in the air. All of those collisions create an electric charge. Since opposites attract, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud.

During the storm, the droplets and crystals bump together and move apart in the air. This rubbing makes static electrical charges in the clouds. Just like a battery, these clouds have a “plus” end and a “minus” end. The plus, or positive, charges in the cloud are at the top.

Most lightning strikes are negatively charged and make up for about 95% of total strikes. Thunderstorms that carry more positive charges in the summer tend to be stronger storms too.

Description. Atmospheric electricity is always present, and during fine weather away from thunderstorms, the air above the surface of Earth is positively charged, while the Earth’s surface charge is negative.

Most lava is very hot—about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. At those temperatures, a human would probably burst into flames and either get extremely serious burns or die. Unlike a lake, people won’t immediately sink into lava.

What are three reasons why Pluto is not a planet?

• It’s smaller than any other planet — even smaller than Earth’s moon.
• It’s dense and rocky, like the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars).
• Pluto’s orbit is erratic.
• One of its moons, Charon, is about half Pluto’s size.

Jupiter

FAQ – Spacecraft

The very long Mercurian Day It would be a very long workday from an Earth perspective! This is because Mercury’s rotation around its axis lasts 59 days, and it takes 88 days to move around its orbit around the Sun. Interestingly, 59 is exactly 2/3 of 88.

Tough Place to Live No evidence for life has been found on Mercury. Daytime Temperatures can reach 430 degrees Celsius (800 degrees Fahrenheit) and drop to -180 degrees Celsius (-290 degrees Fahrenheit) at night. It is unlikely life (as we know it) could survive on this planet.

The hottest planet in the solar system is Venus with an average temperature of 464 degree Celsius and the coldest planet in the solar system is Pluto with an average temperature of -225 degree Celsius.

Kepler has found the darkest known planet in universe–a Jupiter-sized exoplanet some 750 light-years away that is so black that it reflects just one percent of the light that reaches it. TrES-2b is so black that it’s darker than coal, or any other planet or moon that we’ve yet discovered.

But weather on Uranus functions much as it does on other gas giants. Like Jupiter and Saturn, the planet has bands of zones and belts that orbit parallel to the equator, which is warmer than the poles. The warm temperature that drive the planet’s weather come from the interior of the planet, rather than from the sun.