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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

Gigantic Jet Lightning over India

Explanation: Yes, but can your lightning bolt do this? While flying from Munich to Singapore earlier this month, an industrious passenger took images of a passing lightning storm and caught something unexpected: gigantic jet lightning. The jet was captured on a single 3.2-second exposure above Bhadrak , India . Although the gigantic jet appears connected to the airplane's wing, it likely started in a more distant thundercloud , and can be seen extending upwards towards Earth's ionosphere . The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprite s remains an active topic of research.

Date September 18, 2019
Credit Image Credit & Copyright: Hung-Hsi Chang
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.