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NASA astronaut captures rare 'gigantic jet' from space (upload.wikimedia.org)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/pics@lemmy.world
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NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers captured a stunning photograph of one of nature's most elusive phenomena from the International Space Station on July 3, 2025, initially believing she had documented a sprite, a rare form of atmospheric lightning, only to discover she had captured something even more extraordinary: a gigantic jet.

"Nichole Ayers caught a rare and spectacular form of a TLE from the International Space Station — a gigantic jet," confirmed Dr. Burcu Kosar, Principal Investigator of NASA's Spritacular project. The discovery represents one of the clearest views of this atmospheric phenomenon ever documented from space.

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[–] 1 point 1 year ago* (7 children)

Serious question.

If we could harness these lightning strikes and convert them into usable electricity. Would it change our planet? Would it drain the planet of some force of energy keeping us alive?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I doubt it, lightning strikes are just static discharges

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Right but energy doesn't end it just changes forms. Surely lightning has effects in our entire planet in some form or fashion we may or may not know about yet or it wouldn't be here.

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  • [–] [B] 3 points 1 year ago

    Not a physicist, but here is my understanding.

    It shouldn't. We can't store that much energy with current technology. Energy can't be created or destroyed, so we would be using it for some other purpose and converting it to something else. Lightning strikes help in the nitrogen cycle, but that happens in the air. I doubt this would be impacted by us capturing the energy.

    If we are able to store that much energy, we would be advanced enough to keep our planet safe, hopefully. It will bring different problems. Somewhat related to this, you should read about Kardashev scale and Dyson spheare.

    Putting up wind farms should have more impact since it can change wind patterns, but the new wind turbines might be a lot better.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I don't think we could ever take so much energy that we'd suck the planet dry of it. I think a lot of the energy comes from solar energy through to our atmosphere or sumthing and there's a lot of solar energy probably.

    Im really dumb tho so probably dont read this post unless its too late because this disclaimer is the second paragraph.

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