00:00This terrifying but very much real image emerged just recently.
00:05In it, you can see something that looks like it belongs in a science fiction movie.
00:10From far above Earth, aboard the International Space Station,
00:14an astronaut captured something astonishing over Louisiana.
00:19A gigantic jet blasting upward straight into the sky.
00:23It looks as if Earth is sending a signal skyward.
00:26Can science explain this eerie phenomenon?
00:30Apparently, it can.
00:32This energy blast is called a gigantic jet,
00:35and it's one of the rarest and most powerful kinds of lightning we know about.
00:40Unlike regular lightning, which strikes down toward the ground,
00:44gigantic jets shoot up from storm clouds,
00:47and they can stretch for more than 50 miles into the sky.
00:51Sometimes they even reach the ionosphere,
00:53the layer where Earth's atmosphere starts blending into outer space.
00:57To give you an idea, space officially starts around 62 miles above sea level,
01:03and the ionosphere stretches from about 50 to 400 miles up.
01:09Shockingly, scientists have only known about gigantic jets for about 20 years,
01:14and we're still figuring out exactly how they work.
01:17One theory is that something inside the storm cloud blocks the lightning from escaping downward.
01:24So all this pent-up energy looks for another way out and ends up blasting upward into the sky.
01:30But honestly, we still don't fully understand why it happens.
01:35Gigantic jets are also extremely rare.
01:38Scientists think that they happen only around a thousand times a year on the entire planet,
01:42and when they do happen, they carry a lot of energy.
01:46We're talking more than 50 times the power of a normal lightning bolt.
01:51The strongest gigantic jet ever recorded happened in Oklahoma in May 2018.
01:57It was intense, reaching a temperature of 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit
02:01and releasing about 60 times more energy than regular lightning.
02:06In other words, it was a huge burst of electricity flying straight into the sky.
02:10Most of the photos we have of gigantic jets come from satellites or astronauts on the International Space Station.
02:19But a few have also been captured from airplanes flying over storms.
02:23The latest jaw-dropping image was taken on November 19, 2024, by an astronaut aboard the ISS.
02:32At first, the picture wasn't released by NASA or any space agency.
02:36But one photographer, known for tracking and photographing rare lightning events, found the photo by accident.
02:43He was browsing through a NASA-run website called the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth,
02:48which hosts photos taken by astronauts.
02:52There, he spotted images showing a giant lightning jet.
02:56Eventually, the photos were brought to public attention on February 26, 2025,
03:01and they've also been turned into a time-lapse video on YouTube.
03:06We still don't know exactly about the exact spot where the jet happened.
03:10Thick storm clouds covered the ground in the pictures.
03:13But based on where the ISS was flying at the time,
03:17the jet probably happened just off the coast of New Orleans.
03:21Speaking of other images of the gigantic jets,
03:24A photographer living in Puerto Rico was taking pictures of a storm moving through the area.
03:30That same storm would later grow into Hurricane Franklin.
03:34While watching the skies, he saw something truly amazing.
03:38Several massive lightning bolts shooting straight up out of the storm clouds,
03:42stopping just below the edge of space.
03:45No wonder.
03:46According to a 2022 study,
03:49gigantic jets happen most often in tropical areas,
03:52and they're more likely during fast-growing storms,
03:55like Hurricane Franklin.
03:58Gigantic jets often end with thin, red, branch-like lightning tendrils.
04:03These faint red flashes are very similar to another rare type of lightning called sprites.
04:08Those sometimes look like giant glowing jellyfish in the sky.
04:13In 2023, an astronomer named Stanislav Kaniansky in Slovakia
04:18captured one of the clearest images of a sprite ever.
04:21It happened during a thunderstorm over central Europe on August 14th,
04:25and he spotted it near his home.
04:29In the photo, you can see a huge glowing red structure with zigzag patterns
04:34stretching over 31 miles across the sky.
04:37But like all sprites,
04:39it only lasted a fraction of a second before fading away.
04:44Sprites happen when lightning sends electrical energy upward
04:47into the upper part of Earth's atmosphere instead of just downward like regular lightning.
04:53This energy creates glowing strands of plasma,
04:56which is basically electrified gas way up in the ionosphere.
05:00Since sprites are so fast and often hidden by thick clouds,
05:04they're very hard to photograph.
05:06But Kaniansky got lucky.
05:08The thunderstorm was about 200 miles away from him.
05:11So, he had a clear view just above the tops of the storm clouds.
05:16That perfect angle helped him capture this stunning phenomenon.
05:20There are many different kinds of lightning,
05:23and some of them are not only rare but also super dangerous.
05:28Let's take ball lightning, for example.
05:30It's exactly what it sounds like,
05:32a glowing, floating ball of light that appears during thunderstorms.
05:36It's also one of the weirdest and most mysterious forms of lightning.
05:41People have seen these strange light balls,
05:43usually about the size of a grapefruit,
05:45slowly spinning or hovering just above the ground.
05:48Some even say they've seen them float through closed windows
05:52or suddenly appear indoors,
05:54then vanish after about 10 seconds.
05:58For hundreds of years,
06:00no one really knew what caused ball lightning.
06:03Scientists had no explanation,
06:04and most sightings were based on eyewitness stories.
06:08Then, in 2012,
06:09someone finally managed to capture ball lightning on camera.
06:13Since then,
06:14different ideas have come up to explain what ball lightning really is.
06:19One of the newest theories suggests
06:21that the ball is actually a tight bubble of super compressed air.
06:26This compressed air bends and spins white light in all directions,
06:30making it look like a glowing ball rolling around in the sky.
06:35And according to the researchers,
06:37ball lightning can be almost a billion times more intense
06:40than regular lightning that moves in a straight line.
06:43Then, there are elves.
06:46They look a lot like sprites,
06:47but instead of looking like jellyfish or dancing shapes,
06:51elves appear as huge glowing rings or halos in the sky.
06:55And they're massive.
06:57An elf can spread out to be up to 185 miles wide.
07:02You can even spot them from space or through thin clouds during the day.
07:08Dark lightning is probably one of the strangest types of lightning,
07:11and most people don't even know it exists.
07:15Unlike regular lightning,
07:16it doesn't produce a bright flash.
07:18Instead, it gives off intense bursts of radiation,
07:22especially gamma rays,
07:23the most energetic form of light found in nature.
07:27Dark lightning happens when high-speed electrons
07:29slam into air molecules inside a storm cloud.
07:33This creates a burst of gamma rays.
07:35They're so strong that they can mess with satellites
07:38hundreds of miles away in space.
07:40In rare cases,
07:42when a plane flies through a thunderstorm,
07:43these flashes can hit the aircraft.
07:46Some passengers could get a quick dose of radiation,
07:49about the same as a full-body CT scan.
07:53But worry not.
07:54Scientists say these occasions are extremely rare
07:57and not a reason to be afraid of flying.
08:00And finally,
08:02there's positive lightning.
08:04You see,
08:05lightning is still kind of a mystery,
08:07even for scientists.
08:08But here's the basic idea.
08:10Inside a storm cloud,
08:11tiny pieces of ice bump into each other
08:14and build up electric charges.
08:16Some become positive,
08:18others negative.
08:19Most of the lightning we see
08:21comes from the bottom of the cloud
08:22where there are lots of negative charges.
08:25These reach down and zap the ground.
08:28But sometimes,
08:30lightning comes from the top of the cloud
08:31where positive charges hang out.
08:34That's called positive lightning
08:35and it only makes up
08:37about 5 to 10% of lightning strikes.
08:40Most of the time,
08:41those positive charges
08:42just zap other parts of the cloud.
08:44But sometimes,
08:45they shoot all the way down to the ground.
08:48That's why positive lightning can strike
08:50even when the sky looks clear.
08:52Because it comes from way up high in the cloud,
08:55sometimes miles away from the storm itself.
08:58The scariest part
08:59is that regular lightning
09:01can reach about 300 million volts.
09:04While the charge of positive lightning
09:06can be up to a billion volts.
09:08That means
09:09positive lightning
09:10is much stronger
09:11and more dangerous.
09:15That's it for today.
09:17So hey,
09:17if you pacified your curiosity,
09:19then give the video a like
09:21and share it with your friends.
09:22Or if you want more,
09:23just click on these videos
09:24and stay on the bright side.
09:26And we'll be right back to the cloud.
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