The eerie red lights, which were glowing in the atmosphere of the Earth and above the coast of South Africa, were captured by a NASA astronaut from a window aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
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On June 21, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission commander Matthew Dominick captured the mesmerising image. The red glowing light was actually a sudden flash of a weather phenomenon called ‘red sprite’ lightning.
Red sprites are said to flash above thunderclouds in the upper atmosphere, known as the mesosphere, which extends up to 53 miles above the surface.
In the image, blood-red bursts of energy were seen shining above the coast of South Africa.
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“Super lucky a few weeks ago when shooting a timelapse of a lightning storm off the coast of South Africa,” said Dominick, as he explained the image in a post to social site X.
“One of the frames in the timelapse had a red sprite. If there are any red sprite experts out there I would enjoy tips on how to capture more of these. Clearly, look for lightning storms, but I’m thinking the stronger the storm the better,” he added.
The image of the red sprites was captured by Dominick from a vantage point which is hundreds of miles above the high-altitude electrical discharges and falls in the orbit within the International Space Station (ISS).
Here’s what is a red sprite
Red sprites are a type of electrical bursts of light which are formed above the highly active thunderstorms.
These are found in the D region of the ionosphere, which is the area above the dense lower atmosphere nearly 37 to 56 miles from the Earth.
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The light appears red at higher altitudes and turns to blue at lower heights. For nearly a century, scientists have known that atmospheric sprites, however, their origins have remained a mystery.
They occur for only a few milliseconds and are comparatively dim in comparison to other lightning.
(With inputs from agencies)
Source link : https://www.wionews.com/science/nasa-captures-eerie-red-light-above-south-africa-heres-what-red-sprite-was-doing-in-earths-atmosphere-740310/amp
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Publish date : 2024-07-12 14:30:39
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