The edge of the Earth is seen from space at night. The curving horizon is tinted green but a red and blue jet rises from left. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
夜晚从太空中看到的地球边缘。弯曲的地平线呈绿色，但左侧有一股红蓝相间的喷流升起。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
A landscape showing a night sky over distant mountains is shown. Lakes dot the foreground in front of the mountains. Extending from above the mountains into the night sky are six bright jets. The jets are violet at the bottom but red at the top. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
图中是一幅风景画，画中远处群山之上是夜空。群山前方，湖泊点缀在前景中。六条明亮的喷流从群山之上延伸到夜空中。喷流底部呈紫色，顶部呈红色。有关更多详细信息，请参阅说明。
2023年10月2日 Sprite Lightning in High Definition Image Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Escurat Explanation: Sometimes lightning occurs out near space. One such lightning type is red sprite lightning, which has only been photographed and studied on Earth over the past 25 years. The origins of all types of lightning remain topics for research, and scientists are still trying to figure out why red sprite lightning occurs at all. Research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. Featured here is an extraordinarily high-resolution image of a group of…
2023年9月18日 The Red Sprite and the Tree Credit & Copyright: Maxime Villaeys Explanation: The sprite and tree could hardly be more different. To start, the red sprite is an unusual form of lightning, while the tree is a common plant. The sprite is far away — high in Earth’s atmosphere, while the tree is nearby — only about a football field away. The sprite is fast — electrons streaming up and down at near light’s speed, while the tree is slow — wood anchored to the ground. The sprite is bright — lighting up the sky, while the tree is dim — shining mostly by reflected light. The sprite was fleeting — lasting only a small fraction of a second, while the tree is durable…
2023年6月25日 Lightning on Jupiter Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Processing & License: Kevin M. Gill Explanation: Does lightning occur only on Earth? No. Spacecraft in our Solar System have detected lightning on other planets, including Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and lightning is likely on Venus, Uranus, and Neptune. Lightning is a sudden rush of electrically charged particles from one location to another. On Earth, drafts of colliding ice and water droplets usually create lightning-generating charge separation, but what happens on Jupiter? Images and data from NASA’s Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft bolster previous speculation that Jovian lightning is also created in clouds containing water and ice. In the featured Juno photograph, an optical flash was captured in a large cloud vortex near Jupiter’s north pole. During the next few…
2023年4月17日 ELVES Lightning over Italy Image Credit & Copyright: Valter Binotto Explanation: What’s that red ring in the sky? Lightning. The most commonly seen type of lightning involves flashes of bright white light between clouds. Over the past 50 years, though, other types of upper-atmospheric lightning have been confirmed, including red sprites and blue jets. Less well known and harder to photograph is a different type of upper atmospheric lightning known as ELVES. ELVES are thought to be created when an electromagnetic pulse shoots upward from charged clouds and impacts the ionosphere, causing nitrogen molecules to glow. The red ELVES ring pictured had a radius of about 350 km and was captured in late March about 100 kilometers above Ancona, Italy. Years of experience and…
2022年9月19日 Star Trails and Lightning over the Pyrenees Image Credit & Copyright: Marc Sellés Llimós Explanation: The beauty in this image comes in layers. On the bottom layer is the picturesque village of Manlleu in Barcelona, Spain. The six-minute exposure makes car lights into streaks. The next layer is a mountain — Serra de Bellmunt — of Europe’s famous Pyrenees. Next up is a tremendous lightning storm emanating from a classically-shaped anvil cloud. The long exposure allowed for the capture of many intricate lightning bolts. Finally, at the top and furthest in the distance are stars. Here, the multi-minute exposure made stars into trails. The trailing effect is caused by the rotation of the Earth, and the curvature of the trails indicates their distance from…
2022年9月12日 Red Sprite Lightning over the Czech Republic Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Ščerba Explanation: What are those red filaments in the sky? They are a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 35 years ago: red sprites. Research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light. They are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The featured image was taken late last month from the Jeseniky Mountains in northern Moravia in the Czech Republic. The distance to the red sprites is about 200 kilometers. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to…
2021年9月29日 Gigantic Jet Lightning from Puerto Rico Video Credit & Copyright: Frankie Lucena Explanation: Have you ever seen a gigantic jet? They are extremely rare but tremendously powerful. Gigantic jets are a type of lightning discharge documented only this century that occur between some thunderstorms and the Earth’s ionosphere high above them. Pictured above is the middle and top of one such jet caught last week by a lightning and meteor camera from Puerto Rico, USA. The jet traversed perhaps 70 kilometers in just under one second. Gigantic jets are much different from regular cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. The bottoms of gigantic jets appear similar in appearance to another type cloud-to-above strike called blue jets, while the tops appear similar to upper-atmosphere red sprites. Although…
2021年05月24日 Lightning Eclipse from the Planet of the Goats Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Kotsiopoulos (GreekSky) Explanation: Thunderstorms almost spoiled this view of the spectacular 2011 June 15 total lunar eclipse. Instead, storm clouds parted for 10 minutes during the total eclipse phase and lightning bolts contributed to the dramatic sky. Captured with a 30-second exposure the scene also inspired one of the more memorable titles (thanks to the astrophotographer) in APOD’s now 25-year history. Of course, the lightning reference clearly makes sense, and the shadow play of the dark lunar eclipse was widely viewed across planet Earth in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The picture itself, however, was shot from the Greek island of Ikaria at Pezi. That area is known as “the planet…
