December 5, 2016
You are a way for the cosmos to know itself, Carl Sagan once said. On your birthday, the cosmos got to know itself a little better.
Lightning over Colorado
Birthday · December 5, 2016
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published December 5, 2016. Credit: Joe Randall. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Have you ever watched a lightning storm in awe? Join the crowd. Oddly, nobody knows exactly how lightning is produced. What is known is that charges slowly separate in some clouds causing rapid electrical discharges (lightning), but how electrical charges get separated in clouds remains a topic of much research. 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. Follow APOD on: Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, or Twitter
Image credit: Joe Randall