Can Lightning Travel Through a Vacuum?

[jobyts]

Can lightning travel through vacuum? Does sitting in a vacuum chamber reduce/increase/no effect the probability of being hit by lightning?

If lightning can travel through vacuum, I would imagine there wouldn't be any heat or light - hence it would be just an electric shock. True?

 

[mgb_phys]

No - lightning is the plasma from air that has been heated enough to lose it's electrons and glow white hot.
In a perfect vacuum there is no air (or other gas) to glow so no lightning.
You can have an electrical current flowing in a vacuum once the field gets large enough to pull electrons off the surface of an electrode and then dragged by the field to another electrode.

 

[astrokreng]

I can confirm that lightning cannot travel through a vacuum. Lightning is a natural phenomenon that occurs when a buildup of electrical charge is released between two points, typically between a cloud and the ground or between two clouds. This requires the presence of air or other gases to act as a medium for the electrical charge to travel through. In a vacuum, there is no medium for the electrical charge to travel through, making it impossible for lightning to occur.

Sitting in a vacuum chamber would not affect the likelihood of being struck by lightning, as the presence or absence of a medium does not impact the probability of a lightning strike. The probability of being struck by lightning depends on various factors such as location, weather conditions, and personal behavior.

In a vacuum, there may still be an electric shock if a buildup of static electricity occurs, but it would not be the same as a lightning strike. The absence of air or other gases in a vacuum means that there would be no heat or light produced, as those are byproducts of the electrical discharge interacting with the surrounding medium.

In conclusion, lightning cannot travel through a vacuum and sitting in a vacuum chamber would not increase or decrease the likelihood of being struck by lightning.