‘Blue Jet’ lightning spotted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station



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In another spectacular sight, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) recently spotted a blue jet. Describe their observations in the journal Nature, they said it was captured by their instruments on February 26, 2019. Blue jet lighting, also known as upper atmosphere lighting, is a flash that shoots upward due to thunderstorms .

The phenomenon was spotted by spatial interaction monitors of the European atmosphere near Naru Island in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists report seeing five intense flashes of blue light, each lasting about 10 to 20 milliseconds. The blue jet then unfolded from the cloud in a narrow cone shape that extended into the stratosphere, the atmospheric layer that extends about 6 to 31 miles (10 to 50 kilometers) above the surface. of Earth, as described by livescience.com.

‘spotted elves’

In addition to the blue jets, the researchers also observed another phenomenon that occurs in the upper atmosphere. Known as the “elves”, the phenomenon represents very low frequency light emissions and disturbances from sources of electromagnetic pulses. An animated visualization of the phenomenon by an artist has been released by the European Space Agency (ESA). Watch it here:

Read: British-built spacecraft will make its first flyby to Venus on December 27 in the middle of the holidays: ESA

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In another piece of ESA news, a UK-designed spacecraft made its first flyby of Venus as it headed for the Sun on a mission to unravel the mysteries of the neighboring planet. The spacecraft is expected to tilt under the influence of the Sun’s gravitational force as it faces Venus to make observations that will help scientists learn more about the planet. The perihelion of the solar orbiter to the Sun occurred on December 27, at around 12:39 UTC (13:39 CET) in the middle of the holiday season, according to the ESA. The spacecraft will fly approximately 7,500 km from the cloud tops of Venus.

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