Posted on 04/10/2013 9:41:20 AM PDT by Red Badger
Though its name sounds better suited to fantasy or sci-fi, researchers have recently gathered evidence that something called dark lightning exists, the Washington Post reported.
Like any evil twin, dark lightning appears to "compete" with the ordinary lightning during thunderstorms.
A person could be struck by dark lightning and not even know it.
Like ordinary lightning, dark lightning brews inside thunderclouds. In fact, it may be a competing way for the clouds to release their energy, says Joseph Dwyer, a lightning researcher at the Florida Institute of Technology. Dwyer has come up with a model explaining how dark lightning arises. His idea awaits further measurements for confirmation.
Scientists first began seeing hints of dark lightning from gamma ray measurements from satellites since at least the 1990s, according to this NASA video. Gamma rays, the most energetic wave in the electromagnetic spectrum, are typically associated with radioactive decay, nuclear detonations and supernova explosions. Dark lightning appears to be made of X-rays and gamma rays.
Although no one knows for sure, humans may have been struck by dark lightning before, most likely during an airplane ride, Dwyer told the Washington Post. Even that is unlikely: Pilots usually stay away from storms, and dark lightning flashes are rare compared to ordinary lightning bolts. If hit, however, plane passengers probably wouldn't hear or feel the strike, but they would absorb what Dwyer estimated to be an entire lifetime's worth of safe radiation.
Dark Lightning Flash Above Earth In this visualization of dark lightning, which is actually invisible, gamma rays are shown in pink. Highlighted in yellow are subatomic particles called positrons that the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope detected from this dark lightning flash. The Earth is below and the moon appears behind the pink gamma rays. Screenshot from "ScienceCasts: Dark Lightning" by Science@NASA on YouTube
Back in my teenage years (late 60’s early 70’s) I knew a musician who played in a band called ‘Dark Entry’..........
But would being struck by darkning be fatal?
If it’s invisible that explains why its dark.
Is this another scientist in desperate need of a grant?
Grandpappy spilled some dye in the moonshine, just don't report it to the feds...
If you are speaking of legal matters the Nuclear Regulatory Agency says this is safe for occupational exposure.
5 times your age minus 18 REM per year.
So if you are 20 that would be 2 times 5 which would equal 10 REM (Rad Equivalent Man).
Then the NRC defines the Lethal dose (LD) as:
The dose of radiation expected to cause death to 50 percent of an exposed population within 30 days (LD 50/30). Typically, the LD 50/30 is in the range from 400 to 450 rem (4 to 5 sieverts) received over a very short period.
So safe is probably somewhere in between.
Can I just call it lightning?
Another discovery that that has been tossed around the innernuts for a while.
http://tristan.ethereal.net/humor/dark-suckers.html
snip>>
For years it has been believed that electric bulbs emitted light. However, recent information from Bell Labs has proven otherwise. Electric bulbs don’t emit light; they suck dark. Thus they now call these bulbs dark suckers. The dark sucker theory, according to a spokesman from the Labs, proves the existence of dark, that dark has mass heavier than that of light, and that dark is faster than light.
Not to mention Black Holes!
Thanks for the Explanation, I was worried if I got hit by dark lighten I would turn into the hulk...
Though I think “White-lightning” is already taken ... :-)
Just another excellent reason not to fly through, over or under a thunderstorm.
Does that mean that if you get old enough you’re immune to radiation?
Hint: look at poster name.......
dark lightning
Maybe we should call it “darkning”.
Well the current theory is that children (those still in their growing years) are more sensitive to the effects of radiation.
The theory is that cells are most sensitive to radiation during cell division. Growing children have more cells in the process of division.
All living humans have cells that divide frequently such as the blood producing cells in the bone marrow. So no the old are still sensitive to radiation but less so than younger people.
Ack!
They know!
Of course not.
It’s Bush’s fault.
Hahaha, totally!
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