Astronauts on the International Space Station released an image earlier this week that captures an orbital view of thunderstorms over southern Mexico and an unusual and short-lived phenomenon known as a big red sprite along the right edge of the picture.
According to Discovery News, the photo was taken on August 10 as recumbent Orion was rising over Earth’s limb, and it clearly shows a cluster of bright red and purple streamers rising above a white- and blue-colored flash of lightning and forming an object resembling a jellyfish.
Like lightning, sprites are bursts of electromagnetic discharge, Tech Insider explained, and they are basically sparks created above storm clouds in the upper atmosphere that follow the lightning beneath the cloud. This lightning charge creates an electrical field that, should it be able to grow large enough, generates a spark.
Sprites can extend upwards of 50 to 55 miles into the atmosphere, and appear to be at brightest between 40 to 45 miles above the Earth’s surface. They are red in color because the nitrogen in the higher parts of the atmosphere is excited by the burst of electricity, Tech Insider said.
Not the first time the ISS crew has photographed sprites
Sprites themselves are fairly common, although photographs such as this one are rather rare because these events are extremely short-lived, lasting only three to 10 milliseconds on average. They have been captured previously by the ISS crew, but rarely in such a high-quality image.
Despite that rare nature, however, Discovery News noted that the same storm resulted in not one but two photographs of sprite outbursts, both of which had been captured on camera as the space station was moving towards the southeast. The other one had actually been taken a few minutes earlier, but lacks the quality of the one taken later.
The exact mechanisms that create these phenomena are not yet known, and they could provide insight into the complex nature of the planet’s electrical environment, as well as how storms and weather interact with and influence that environment. Experts have suggested that searching for sprite activity on other planets may help find worlds capable of harboring life.
(Image credit: NASA)
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