Worlds in Collision
Tim Callahan, religion editor of "Skeptic", presses the case further in claiming that the composition of the atmosphere of Venus is a complete disproof of "Worlds in Collision". "...Velikovsky's hypothesis stands or falls on Venus having a reducing atmosphere made up mainly of hydrocarbons. In fact, the atmosphere of Venus is made up mainly of carbon dioxide—carbon in its "oxidized" form—along with clouds of sulfuric acid. Therefore, it couldn't have carried such an atmosphere with it out of Jupiter and it couldn't be the source of hydrocarbons to react with oxygen in our atmosphere to produce carbohydrates. Velikovsky's hypothesis is falsified by the carbon dioxide atmosphere of Venus."
Atmosphere of Venus
The clouds of Venus may be capable of producing lightning, and the Soviet Venera 9 and 10 orbiters obtained optical and electromagnetic evidence of lightning . The European Space Agency's "Venus Express" in 2007 detected whistler waves which were attributed to lightning. Their intermittent appearance indicates a pattern associated with weather activity. According to the whistler observations, the lightning rate is at least half of that on Earth.