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APOD: 2025 September 9 Á Up from the Earth: Gigantic Jet Lightning
Explanation:
What's that rising up from the Earth?
When circling the Earth on the
International Space Station early in
July,
astronaut
Nicole Ayers
saw an unusual type of lightning rising up from the Earth:
a gigantic
jet.
The powerful jet appears near the center of the
featured
image in red, white, and blue.
Giant jet lightning
has only been known about for the past 25 years.
The atmospheric jets are associated with
thunderstorms and extend upwards towards
Earth's ionosphere.
The lower part of
the frame shows the
Earth at night,
with Earth's thin atmosphere tinted green from airglow.
City lights are visible,
sometimes resolved, but usually
creating diffuse white glows in intervening clouds.
The top of the frame reveals
distant stars in the
dark night sky.
The nature of
gigantic jets
and their possible association with other types of
Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as
blue jets and
red sprites remain active topics of research.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: lightning
Publications with words: lightning
See also:
- APOD: 2025 July 27 Á Lightning over the Volcano of Water
- APOD: 2024 August 13 Á Giant Jet from the International Space Station
- APOD: 2024 June 18 Á Gigantic Jets over Himalayan Mountains
- APOD: 2023 October 2 Á Sprite Lightning in High Definition
- APOD: 2023 September 18 Á The Red Sprite and the Tree
- APOD: 2023 June 25 Á Lightning on Jupiter
- APOD: 2023 April 17 Á ELVES Lightning over Italy