October 13, 2014
The light from the farthest visible stars set out on its journey long before your first birthday.
Sprite Lightning in Slow Motion
Birthday · October 13, 2014
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published October 13, 2014 · Video still. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What causes sprite lightning? Mysterious bursts of light in the sky that momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish have been recorded for over 25 years, but their root cause remains unknown. Some thunderstorms have them -- most don't. Recently, however, high speed videos are better detailing how sprites actually develop. The featured video is fast enough -- at about 10,000 frames per second -- to time-resolve several sprite "bombs" dropping and developing into the multi-pronged streamers that appear on still images. Unfortunately, the visual clues provided by these videos do not fully resolve the sprite origins mystery. They do indicate to some researchers, though, that sprites are more likely to occur when plasma irregularities exist in the upper atmosphere. Astrophysicists: Browse 900+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library