Yash Baheti
Last Activity: 10 Years ago
looking for high-energy bursts from solar flares, black holes and exploding stars — detected strange, bright bursts but had no idea where they originated.The phenomenon occurs high in the atmosphere at nearly the same altitude as commercial-airline flights. The radiation dark lightning produces is about 100 times more potent than an x-ray.
"What's kind of cool is that what we're talking about sounds like science fiction — but this stuff is really happening inside thunderstorms,”
The basics
Normal lightning occurs when clouds pregnant with positive and negative charges build up and create an electric field. When those charges separate, they discharge huge amounts of energy suddenly and cause a hot, bright, incandescent spark.
It's like rubbing your feet on a rug and touching a metal doorknob. Zap!