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Credit & Copyright: Joe Randall
Explanation:
Have you ever watched a lightning storm in awe?
Join the crowd.
Oddly, details about how
lightning is produced remains a topic of research.
What is known is that updrafts carry light
ice crystals into collisions with larger and softer ice balls,
causing the smaller crystals to become positively charged.
After enough charge becomes separated, the rapid electrical discharge that
is lightning occurs.
Lightning usually takes a
jagged course,
rapidly heating
a thin column of air to about three times the surface temperature of the
Sun.
The resulting shock wave starts
supersonically and decays into the
loud sound known as
thunder.
Lightning bolts are common in clouds during rainstorms, and on average
44 lightning bolts occur on the
Earth every second.
Pictured, over 60 images were stacked to capture
the flow of lightning-producing storm clouds in July over
Colorado Springs,
Colorado,
USA.
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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: 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
- Star Trails and Lightning over the Pyrenees
- Red Sprite Lightning over the Czech Republic
- Gigantic Jet Lightning from Puerto Rico