Astronauts appropriate a red fairy from their advantage point on the International Space Station . The vibrant jellyfish is part of a electric storm that raged over Mexico in former August .
Red sprites are smart flashes that come about at once above thunderstorm with more mundane swarm - to - land or intracloud lightning strikes . The sprites are brightest at an altitude of 65 to 75 kilometers ( 40 to 46 miles ) , but can extend as faint wisps as low as 30 kilometer and as in high spirits as 95 kilometers ( 18 to 59 miles ) . The faerie are red at the high-pitched altitude , fading to blue at lower altitude . The largest sprites clump together in a clump of tendrils up to 50 kilometre ( 31 miles ) across , looking mistily like carmine radiance man-of-war .
Red sprites above a thunderstorm in Mexico on August 10 , 2015 . epitome credit : NASA
The faerie flaunt for only a few millisecond , making them extremely difficult to photograph . This in turn makes them difficult to analyze , although we ’ve learned a lot since the first meter fay were document in 1989 . They retain the whimsical name “ fairy ” in part because that capture the momentary nature of the phenomena without committing toany special forcible process to make them .
Although photographs of the atmospherical phenomenon are uncommon , cosmonaut on the International Space Station have a perfect view for gibe out the zillion of lightning strikesthat hit the Earth every Clarence Day . This photograph was accept recently on August 10 , 2015 above Mexico . It also contains a view of the moon , the green haze of airglow , orange city lightness , a all-embracing white splotch of dense lightning flashes .
Update August 24 , 2015 : NASA has releasedan annotate version of this photograph .
[ @EpicCosmosviaLights in the Dark ]
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