Giant Gas Explosions on Venus Can Engulf the Planet

Astronomers have observed a peculiar space weather phenomenon around Venus, where giant gas explosions called hot flow anomalies are so enormous that they can enshroud the entire planet.

These hot flow anomalies occur around Earth, too, but the planet's magnetosphere keeps them restrained. Venus, however, is not fortified by a magnetic field to rein in these gas explosions.

"Not only are they gigantic," said Glyn Collinson, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "But as Venus doesn't have a magnetic field to protect itself, the hot flow anomalies happen right on top of the planet. They could swallow the planet whole."

Moreover, these explosions happen on Venus multiple times a day. Collinson was the first author of a paper detailing Venus' hot flow anomalies published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The research reveals just how large and how frequent this sort of space weather is on Venus.

Venus' lack of a magnetic field puts it in sharp contrast with its neighbor Earth.

According to NASA: "At Earth, hot flow anomalies do not make it inside the magnetosphere, but they release so much energy just outside that the solar wind is deflected, and can be forced to move back toward the sun. Without a magnetosphere, what happens at Venus is very different."

Venus' ionosphere protects it from both incoming and deflected solar wind, but the planet's ionosphere can easily be disrupted by a hot flow anomaly.

"The hot flow anomalies may create dramatic, planet-scale disruptions, possibly sucking the ionosphere up and away from the surface of the planet," NASA said in a statement.