A Rare red spectrumappeared in Heaven above the earth like a gigantic and evanescent Medusa with long tentacles: this rare and mysterious atmospheric phenomenon, which occurs above more intense thunderstorms And that it is still little understood, it was photographed by American astronaut Nichole Ayerscurrently at his first mission aboard the International Space Station, which he has posted the shot on x.
Just. Wow. AS We Went Over Mexico and the US This Morning, I Caught This Sprite.
Sprites are tles or transient luminous events, that happy above the clouds and are triggered by intense Electrical Activity in the Thunderstorms Below. We have a Great View Above The Clouds, I know … pic.twitter.com/dcqirn3vra
– Nichole “Vapor” Ayers (@stro_ayers) July 3, 2025
“The ghosts are Transient bright events, or tlewhich occur above the clouds and are triggered by‘intense electrical activity underlying thunderstorms, “writes Ayers in his post.” We have a fantastic view over the clouds, so scientists can use this type of images for better understand there training e the characteristics of the Tle – comments the astronaut – and their relationship with thunderstorms “.
The spectrum ‘captured’ by the ISS is a particularly spectacular specimen for its size: it rises well above the clouds illuminated by lightning, penetrating the upper part of the terrestrial atmosphere, e rivale in brightness with the cities below.
The photo published on X also received the comment of another astronaut, Don Pettit, who returned to Earth last April after his latest mission aboard the space station: “To take a photo like this – Pettit writes – it takes skills in configuring the camera, but above all we need knowledge of which temporal systems are more likely to generate spectra and the will to take from 2 thousand to 5 thousand images – concludes the astronaut – of which only one will record the spectrum“.
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