Mysterious red lights have been detected glowing in the Earth’s atmosphere

Despite the amount of space exploration we’ve achieved over the years, we still know very little about what’s out there beyond Earth.

His astronauts International Space Station (ISS) they face difficult and dangerous missions, such as spacewalks to repair parts of the station’s infrastructure. This poses risks that the average person on the surface of our planet obviously does not face.

Red Elves

Recently, an ISS astronaut recorded strange things red lights in the Earth’s atmosphere. These lights are not UFOs or aliens, but natural phenomena known as «red sprites».

These form above storm clouds in the mesosphere and appear as vertical red lights about 53 miles above the Earth’s surface.

The photo above was taken by Matthew Dominickcommander of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission, on June 3, 2024. The astronaut shared the image on X (formerly Twitter), asking for more information about the phenomenon.

Audience input

NASA is encouraging the public to send in their own photos of these phenomena through the Spritacular program, helping to build a database for scientific research.

Scientific explanation

The “Transient Luminous Events» (TLEs), like red sprites, are colorful bursts of energy that appear above thunderstorms as a result of electrical activity. These images are often captured randomly during Earth time-lapse photography.

Research

Astronauts use the “Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor(ASIM) to collect data on these phenomena. The hope is that others will record these red electrical bursts in the future.

Source: FOXreport.gr