Blue jets studied from ISS

For years, their existence has been debated: elusive electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere that sport names such as red sprites, blue jets, pixies and elves. Reported by pilots, they are difficult to study as they ...

Rare 'red sprites' seen from ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile

This new image taken of the skies above Chile's Atacama Desert near the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) La Silla Observatory, shows bright red streaks in the sky known as red sprites. Red sprites are large-scale electrical ...

Scientists locate parent lightning strokes of sprites

Thunderstorms can generate various forms of transient luminous events, such as red sprites, gigantic jets, and blue jets through the charge transfer involved in the lightning forged inside thunderclouds.

A display of lights above the storm

In 2015, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen was onboard the International Space Station (ISS), photographing the tops of thunderstorms from Earth orbit. And he saw something very interesting indeed.

Image: Spooky lightning from orbit

ESA astronaut Tim Peake took this image circling Earth 400 km up in the International Space Station. He commented: "Sometimes looking down on Earth at night can be kinda spooky."

Rare images of red sprites captured at ESO

At the ESO's observatories located high in the Atacama Desert of Chile, amazing images of distant objects in the Universe are captured on a regular basis. But in January 2015, ESO photo ambassador Petr Horálek captured some ...

A midsummer red sprite seen from space

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick photographed red sprites in Earth's upper atmosphere from the International Space Station on June 3, 2024. The bright red flashes are a less understood phenomena associated with powerful lightning ...