﻿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2023 October 2 [2]A normal starry sky is punctuated by by several very unusually shaped red objects, known as sprites. These sprites are shown in very high details including several very well defined Sprite Lightning in High Definition Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Nicolas Escurat Explanation: Sometimes lightning occurs out near space. One such [4]lightning type is [5]red sprite lightning, which has only been photographed and studied on [6]Earth over the past 25 years. The origins of all types of [7]lightning remain topics for research, and scientists are still trying to figure out why [8]red sprite lightning occurs at all. Research [9]has shown that following a powerful positive [10]cloud-to-ground lightning strike, [11]red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of [12]ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the [13]speed of light. They are [14]quickly followed by a group of upward streaking [15]ionized balls. [16]Featured here is an [17]extraordinarily high-resolution image of a [18]group of red sprites. This image is a single frame lasting only 1/25th of a second from a video taken above [19]Castelnaud Castle in [20]Dordogne, [21]France, about three weeks ago. The sprites quickly vanished -- no sprites were visible even on the very next video frame. Tomorrow's picture: eye in the sky __________________________________________________________________ [22]< | [23]Archive | [24]Submissions | [25]Index | [26]Search | [27]Calendar | [28]RSS | [29]Education | [30]About APOD | [31]Discuss | [32]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [33]Robert Nemiroff ([34]MTU) & [35]Jerry Bonnell ([36]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [37]Specific rights apply. [38]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [39]ASD at [40]NASA / [41]GSFC, [42]NASA Science Activation & [43]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2310/HiResSprites_Escurat_3000.jpg 3. https://www.facebook.com/nicolas.escurat/ 4. https://scijinks.gov/lightning/ 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning) 6. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-earth/ 7. https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/lightning/ 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230918.html 9. https://earthweb.ess.washington.edu/space/AtmosElec/spriteinfo.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120723.html 11. https://earthsky.org/earth/definition-what-are-lightning-sprites/ 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionized-air_glow 13. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/three-ways-to-travel-at-nearly-the-speed-of-light 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210104.html 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionization 16. https://www.facebook.com/groups/376355972487572/permalink/6327770937346016/ 17. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/96/d5/19/96d5193fa5f6968243838aef44d4b4b7.jpg 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170615.html 19. https://youtu.be/2lUm6m4T8Ds?t=17 20. https://youtu.be/l5Ybmr-M4JQ 21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231001.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 31. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=231002 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231003.html 33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 35. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 36. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 38. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 39. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 40. https://www.nasa.gov/ 41. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 42. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 43. http://www.mtu.edu/