Nicole Ayers captured this image of a huge red sprite stretched out over a bolt of lightning during a severe thunderstorm on July 3. (Photo: NASA/ISS/Nicole Ayers)
A NASA astronaut has captured a stunning image of Earth from space showing a giant jellyfish-like “sprite” of red lightning rising above a North American thunderstorm. The rare phenomenon is still poorly understood despite being studied for more than 30 years.
Nicole Ayers, pilot of SpaceX's Crew-10 mission and a member of Expeditions 72 and 73 to the International Space Station (ISS), captured this amazing image on Thursday (July 3) as the ISS flew over a powerful thunderstorm covering parts of Mexico and the southern US, including California and Texas.
“Just. Wow. I managed to capture this sprite as we were flying over Mexico and the US this morning,” Ayers wrote on social media site X. “Sprites are TLEs, or transient luminous events, that occur above clouds and are caused by intense electrical activity from thunderstorms below,” she added.
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