[ad_1]
On December 14, 2018, a lightning strikes near the emblematic Palacio Salvo building in Montevideo, Uruguay.
(Suarez Mariana Suarez / AFP / Getty Images)
- Researchers have for the first time observed "needles".
- They think that the needles carry the unloaded electricity in the clouds, creating more love at first sight.
It has always been a myth that lightning does not hit the same place twice, but scientists now think they know how many locks can reach the same place quickly.
Researchers using the LOFAR chart telescopes, originally designed for radio astronomy observations, have for the first time documented "needles" for illumination. They think that these needles, more than 300 feet long and 15 feet wide, carry positive charges that are not discharged to the ground Lightning returns to the storm cloud, creating successive strikes.
Their discoveries were published this week in the journal Nature.
"LOFAR data allows us to detect the spread of lightning on a scale where, for the first time, we can distinguish the primary processes, "said Brian Hare of the University of Groningen, lead author of the story, in a press release from the Institute of Technology Karlsruhe.
(MORE: Dubai Burj Khalifa hit by lightning)
To put it simply, lightning is basically a giant electric charge. It starts when ice crystals collide in a storm cloud and create electrical charges. These charges can in turn lead to an extremely electrically conductive plasma channel, which leads to the ground in so-called lightning leader channels.
"The electricity of the sky and the clouds is trying to find the easiest way to the ground, often taking steps, twists to get there," says Jonathan Belles, meteorologist weather.com. "A second ruler emerges from the ground, usually a tree or other tall structure, while positive and negative charges attract. When these two leaders reach each other, they explode and become what is usually called lightning. "
As for this myth that lightning never strikes twice? Linguists say it's just a metaphor illustrate how rare it is for a spectacular event to happen multiple times. As the researchers have studied, it is not only possible that several strikes occur in the same flash, but different thunderbolts can hit the same spot, separated by days, months or years. .
The National Meteorological Service says the ratings being struck by lightning every year are around a million. Yet being struck twice is not unheard of. A Texas man, for example, told a reporter that he had been hit by two shots of lightning in 2013. A New Mexico man told a local TV channel to have been hit three times.
The study conducted by the LOFAR research team showed that the positively and negatively charged plasma channels behave differently during the initiation of lightning because of the needles they observed.
"The scientists assume that the charge of a positive plasma channel is not fully evacuated during a thunderbolt, but this part of the charge is returned to the cloud by the needles, "according to the statement from the Karlsruhe Institute". This would explain why lightning does not fire immediately, as it has been thought for a long time, but can strike several times in a few seconds. "
[ad_2]
Source link