Is there space lightning?

When storm clouds send lightning crackling in jagged streaks across the sky or produce a thundering bolt that strikes the ground, another otherworldly phenomenon sometimes erupts from the top of the clouds in a column of blue light firing toward space.

Can lightning strike into space?

But did you know that's just one type of lightning - and in some cases, that lightning can go upwards into space?! What we can see from the surface of our planet is only the beginning, the most powerful activity occurs high above the surface, in Earth's upper atmosphere.

Is there lightning on other planets?

Lightning is found all over the solar system. Spacecraft have detected extraterrestrial lightning strikes in the clouds of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.

How fast is space lightning?

The speed of lightning

While the flashes we see as a result of a lightning strike travel at the speed of light (670,000,000 mph) an actual lightning strike travels at a comparatively gentle 270,000 mph.

What are the 4 types of lightning?

NASA ScienceCasts: Lightning Across the Solar System

Is there lightning in a black hole?

An international group of researchers, with the participation of Astronomical Observatory of Universitat de València, has discovered the first lightning from a black hole from the eruption that had the most powerful bright variations in an extragalactic object ever observed until today.

What is space lightning called?

Early research reports for these events referred to them by a variety of names, including "upward lightning," "upward discharges," "cloud-to-stratosphere discharges," and "cloud-to-ionosphere discharges." Now they are simply referred to as sprites, a whimsical term that evokes a sense of their fleeting nature, while at ...

Is there lightning on Titan?

The Have-Nots: Mercury, Moon, Titan, and Pluto

Any place in the solar system that does not have a convective atmosphere or similar process cannot have atmospheric lightning.

Which planet has the strongest lightning?

The most powerful lightning storm ever detected on Saturn has been captured by the Cassini spacecraft – but scientists are still not sure what is causing it.

Is blue lightning real?

When an unexpected event happens people describe it as a “bolt from the blue”. The phrase is actually based on real weather phenomena where a lightning bolt will strike an area with no overhead clouds. While bolts from the blue don't originate from blue sky, they occur infrequently, are unexpected, and can be deadly.

What is blue lightning?

A "Bolt from the Blue" is a cloud to ground lightning flash which typically comes out of the back side of the thunderstorm cloud, travels a relatively large distance in clear air away from the storm cloud, and then angles down and strikes the ground.

What is dark lightning?

Dark lightning is a burst of gamma rays produced during thunderstorms by extremely fast moving electrons colliding with air molecules. Researchers refer to such a burst as a terrestrial gamma ray flash.

Does lightning occur over ocean?

Lightning doesn't strike the ocean as much as land, but when it does,it spreads out over the water, which acts as a conductor. It can hit boats that are nearby, and electrocute fish that are near the surface. If you're at the beach and hear thunder or see lightning, get out of the water.

Is there lightning on the Sun?

There's not exactly lightning. Lightning happens in a medium like the Earth's atmosphere which normally has high electrical resistance. However the Sun's surface is mostly plasma, so electrical charge can flow fairly easily.

Why does lightning exist?

Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves. Most lightning occurs within the clouds. "Sheet lightning" describes a distant bolt that lights up an entire cloud base.

How cold is space?

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite has refined temperature measurements taken way back in 1964. According to data from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, the temperature of space is 2.725K (2.725 degrees above absolute zero).

Is there lightning on Mars?

The simple answer to that question is that yes, there will be some “lightning” on Mars during dust storms or other events with a lot of dust flying around, but it will not be anywhere near the scale of the storms seen on Earth.

Can humans live on Titan?

Robert Zubrin has pointed out that Titan possesses an abundance of all the elements necessary to support life, saying "In certain ways, Titan is the most hospitable extraterrestrial world within our solar system for human colonization." The atmosphere contains plentiful nitrogen and methane.

Is red lightning real?

Red lightning doesn't exist in the literal sense, according to the National Weather Service. The closest known phenomena is something called a red sprite, which occurs high in the atmosphere “directly above an active thunderstorm,” NOAA says.

Is Pink lightning real?

In snowstorms, where it is somewhat rare, pink and green are often described as colors of lightning. Haze, dust, moisture, raindrops and any other particles in the atmosphere will affect the color by absorbing or diffracting a portion of the white light of lightning.

Is green lightning real?

Green lightning is a rare phenomenon that can be seen during a thunderstorm. Someone who has seen green lightning is extremely lucky as green lightning strikes are rarely seen. It is so rare that the only photograph of a green lightning strike is one from when the Chaiten volcano in Chile erupted.

What is the rarest type of lightning?

ball lightning, also called globe lightning, a rare aerial phenomenon in the form of a luminous sphere that is generally several centimetres in diameter. It usually occurs near the ground during thunderstorms, in close association with cloud-to-ground lightning.

Are there different colors of lightning?

Lightning comes in every color of the rainbow (Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, and Violet, to name a few). It's almost always white, but often it's tinged with another color around the edges. The three most common colors, aside from white, are blue, yellow, and violet.

How common is dark lightning?

It turns out TGFs are produced in all types of thunderstorms, no matter how large or small, and they occur about once for every one thousand flashes of conventional lightning. This phenomenon is termed dark lightning because it is silent and invisible.

Do birds get struck by lightning?

Lightning also strikes birds. An observer once saw a bolt of lightning strike a large flock of migrating snow geese, dropping more than 50 of the birds. Bald eagles have been struck while sitting on their nests, and John James Audubon described two common nighthawks blown from the sky by a lightning bolt.