Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Sprites from Space

NASA ^ | August 21, 2015 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: An old Moon and the stars of Orion rose above the eastern horizon on August 10. The Moon's waning crescent was still bright enough to be overexposed in this snapshot taken from another large satellite of planet Earth, the International Space Station. A greenish airglow traces the atmosphere above the limb of the planet's night. Below, city lights and lightning flashes from thunderstorms appear over southern Mexico. The snapshot also captures the startling apparition of a rare form of upper atmospheric lightning, a large red sprite caught above a lightning flash at the far right. While the space station's orbital motion causes the city lights to blur and trail during the exposure, the extremely brief flash of the red sprite is sharp. Now known to be associated with thunderstorms, much remains a mystery about sprites including how they occur, their effect on the atmospheric global electric circuit, and if they are somehow related to other upper atmospheric lightning phenomena such as blue jets or terrestrial gamma flashes.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA, Expedition 44]

[SunkenCiv]

• Sprites and Trolls at the Edge of Space Photos (lightning-related phenomenon)

The Big One

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[ConorMacNessa]

Thanks very much, FRiend! I have been on this planet for many years and have never seen an image such as this.

I guess there are more things out there than what we know.

"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre / mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."
"Thought must be the harder, heart be the keener / mind must be the greater, as our might lessens."

[ETL]

[Swordmaker]

Once more the Orthodox Cosmologists are at a loss to explain what is easily explicable in the Electric Universe Cosmology — Ping

If you want on or off the Electric Universe Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Rodamala]

ping to this from last night:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3327342/posts

One of the links there is really interesting... an old writeup about the history of sprite observation and photography dating back about 15 years since it was last updated.

[left that other site]

Wow!
I was going to make a Pepsi-Sprite-Coke pun, but that picture is so awesome that I restrained myself. LOL!