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Red Sprites and Circular Elves Lightning over Italy
📖 3 min read 📊 beginner 🏷️ NASA APOD
In Brief
What's happening in the sky? Lightning. The most commonly seen type of lightning involves flashes of bright white light between clouds. Over the past 50 years, though, other types of upper-atmospheric lightning have been confirmed, including tentacled red sprites and ringed ELVES. Although both l...
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The Full Story
What's happening in the sky? Lightning. The most commonly seen type of lightning involves flashes of bright white light between clouds. Over the past 50 years, though, other types of upper-atmospheric lightning have been confirmed, including tentacled red sprites and ringed ELVES. Although both last only a small fraction of a second, sprites are brighter and easier to photograph than their more common electrical-discharge cousins. ELVES are rapidly expanding rings that are thought to be crea...
Key Takeaways
- 1 Important astronomical discovery
- 2 Advances our understanding
- 3 Future research potential
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How We Know This
Scientific observation and analysis
What This Means
Contributes to our knowledge of the universe
Why It Matters
Important advance in astronomy
Related Topics
#astronomy
#discovery