Astronaut photographs elusive luminous event
A rare photo was taken the other day from the International Space Station. About it writes the New York Post.
A giant blue jet – a special type of short-term light phenomena – fell into the camera lens. They are also called ‘lightning in reverse.’
This is an electrical discharge occurring in the atmosphere above a thunderstorm cloud that does not go down but rises up, reaching the lower layers of the Earth’s ionosphere.
Nicole Ayers, an American astronaut with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), took the lucky photo.
“Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite.,” she wrote on her X page, accompanying the impressive photo.
Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the U.S. this morning, I caught this sprite.
Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below. We have a great view above the clouds, so… pic.twitter.com/dCqIrn3vrA
— Nichole “Vapor” Ayers (@Astro_Ayers) July 3, 2025
Nicole Ayers is in her fourth month aboard the ISS as part of the seventy-third long-term expedition.
According to her, it was possible to capture this rather rare short-term light phenomenon while flying over Mexico.
VIDEO. Uncovering nature’s most rarely seen Blue Jets.
Earlier it was reported about a strange and terrible cloud, which was seen by tourists; it was like a tsunami.
So, on a beach in Portugal, such a sight greatly frightened vacationers and users of social networks.
