An astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) has photographed a rare atmospheric phenomenon called a red sprite. These bursts of energy appear above thunderstorms, triggered by lightning within the storm. Red sprites are brief, lasting only a millisecond but can be incredibly large, stretching up to 30 miles wide. Unlike lightning, which travels from clouds to the ground, red sprites move upwards into the atmosphere.
The astronaut, Matthew Dominick, captured the image while filming a timelapse of a lightning storm off the coast of South Africa. This image shows a line of thunderstorms with a row of red sprites visible above the closest storm.
The crew on the ISS often captures these Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) using wide-angle lenses during Earth timelapses. Special instruments on the station, like the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM), also collect data on these events for scientists on Earth.
Social media users were amazed by the photo, commenting on its beauty and the unusual vertical height of the red sprites.
