Can Lightening occur in Space?

It depends on what you mean by “lightning”. Yes, because charge can flow across a vacuum, but No, because you won’t see anything.

Lightning is a sudden electrostatic discharge between regions of differing electric potential. It has been observed on Venus, Jupiter and Saturn,  as well as Earth. There is little material to act as a conductor of charge in Space, so traditional lightning is probably rare. Processes similar to lightning have been observed in electro-magnetic fields around black holes and in highly ionised gas and dust clouds called Nebulae.

The visual effect that you see in the sky is a luminescent plasma left in the wake of the charge moving through the atmosphere: no atmosphere, no plasma, no light.

Lightning during nighttime
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels

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