What is space lightning?

This "lightning" is actually the jet of energy beaming from the white dwarf and interacting with surrounding material. When the jet hits the material around it, it creates shock waves, according to NASA. opens in new tab) Email Chelsea Gohd at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd.

Is there any lightning in space?

Lightning as we know it in air cannot happen in vacuum because lightening depends crucially on the generation of positive ions and negative electrons by ionization of molecules of the air in high electric fields (and eventually high temperatures) and the ensuing impact ionization typical for a gas discharge.

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.

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.

What is Spider lightning?

Spider lightning refers to long, horizontally traveling flashes often seen on the underside of stratiform clouds. Spider lightning is often linked to +CG flashes.

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.

What is red lightning?

Sprites, also known as red lightning, are electrical discharges that appear as bursts of red light above clouds during thunderstorms.

What is the rarest 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.

What is the rarest color of lightning?

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 a Superbolt lightning?

“Superbolts” are the most powerful lightning on Earth, with discharges so strong that they cannot be reproduced in the laboratory. The bolts also display geographic and seasonal attributes opposite that of regular lightning, adding to their mystery.

What are the 4 types of lightning?

Can I poop during a thunderstorm?

Lightning can also hit you on the toilet, he says. “There have been documented incidents of people injured on toilets,” Jensenius told McClatchy. “It (lightning) went through the pipes and through the water. If lightning strikes your home, it often finds its way into the plumbing.”

Is lightning hotter than the sun?

In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun). When lightning strikes a tree, the heat vaporizes any water in its path possibly causing the tree to explode or a strip of bark to be blown off.

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 space lightning called?

Upper-atmospheric lightning, known as transient luminous events, includes colorful phenomena with names straight out of a fairy tale: sprites, elves, and giants. The space station offers this investigation an ideal observing platform for several reasons.

Why is the lightning blue?

Nitrogen, the dominant gas in the atmosphere, is excited by this strong flow of energy, its electrons moving to higher energy states. The distinctive blue-white color of lightning is caused by light emitted as the electrons drop back to their original energy states.

What color is savitar's lightning?

Also, the armor is capable of changing the color of a speedster's lightning as the armor changed Savitar's lightning from yellow to white.

What is the hottest type of lightning?

White lightning is the hottest, and literally, all bolts radiate white color. They're an indication of a low concentration of moisture and dust in the air.

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 Black lightning a real thing?

Scientists have just begun to understand a strange phenomenon known simply as "dark lightning". Different from regular lightning, dark lightning is a release of high-energy gamma radiation—sources include supernovae and supermassive black holes—that is completely invisible to the human eye.

Is Black lightning real weather?

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.

What is cold lightning?

Consequently, flashes with continuing current are much more of a fire concern. Because of the heat they generate, flashes with continuing current are sometimes referred to as hot lightning while flashes containing only return strokes are referred to as "cold lightning."

What is a sprite storm?

What exactly is a sprite? Sprites are rapid flashes of red light that occur high up in the mesosphere, over 50 kilometres above the ground. Similar to how lightning is an electrical discharge between a cloud and the ground, sprites are electrical discharges between the top of a thunderstorm and the upper atmosphere.

What does rainbow lightning mean?

The viral photo is especially rare because McCown had to be standing in between the sun and the storm at the exact moment when the angle of the sun hit the raindrops to form a rainbow, and the positive ground charges and negative cloud charges clashed in a flash of lightning. "It's a pretty rare thing," Cerveny said.

Is purple lightning rare?

The rare purple lightning strike occurs far higher in the atmosphere than normal lightning – and has only rarely been caught on film. The flash of 'ionospheric lightning' stands out against the deep blue of a night sky behind, while the raging storm lights up the clouds below.