Though scientists have long understood how lightning strikes, the precise atmospheric events that trigger it within thunderclouds remained a perplexing mystery. The mystery may be solved, thanks to a team of researchers led by Victor Pasko, professor of electrical engineering in the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, that has revealed the powerful chain reaction that triggers …
Read More »
A bolt of lightning that arced across the sky from Texas to Kansas in the fall of 2017 has officially smashed the record for the world’s longest. During a major thunderstorm in October 2017, the colossal crack of jagged electricity streaked across the Great Plains of North America for 829 kilometers (515 miles) – a distance that surpassed the previous …
Read More »
A lightning bolt that spanned five states in the Great Plains has set a new record for the longest lightning bolt ever recorded, the World Meteorological Organization has confirmed. The “megaflash” zipped across 515 miles (829 kilometers) from eastern Texas through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas to near Kansas City, Missouri, in seven seconds, beating the previous record of 477 miles (768 …
Read More »
“It’s an incredibly strange phenomenon,” he said. “We only discovered them 10 years ago, when we could use a particular set of technologies to detect the start and end locations of the of lightning events.” Megaflashes are not altogether uncommon, but they typically only occur in parts of the world where specific geographical and atmospheric conditions can produce the most …
Read More »
The energy needed for thunderstorms could come from an avalanche of electrons seeded by extraterrestrial cosmic rays, a new study claims. Scientists already knew that lightning is an electrical discharge between thunderclouds and Earth’s surface, but exactly how storm clouds obtain an electric field powerful enough to hurl a bolt has remained a mystery for centuries. Now, a new study …
Read More »
In a stunning display, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) recently captured a lightning storm illuminating the skies above Singapore. The image, taken during the station’s orbit over Southeast Asia, shows intense bursts of light flickering through cloud cover in the region. What is it? The ISS sits in low Earth orbit, providing a unique vantage point for observing …
Read More »
Lightning illuminates the cloud tops of Tropical Storm Erick as it stormed across the Pacific coast of central Mexico at approximately 3:38 a.m. local time on June 20 as the International Space Station orbited 258 miles above. Floating 258 miles above, NASA astronauts on board the International Space Station have a view like no other and can therefore photograph Earth …
Read More »
On a typical sunny morning in late April, the UCLA Bruins began their last week of spring practice. Almost every other football program in the country had already wrapped up spring ball. But the Bruins, a team trying to replace 42 seniors after a 5-7 season, were still at it. Quarterbacks who had never thrown a pass in college took …
Read More »
We’ve all seen dramatic footage of lightning striking a mighty tree, its branches going up in flames. But how often does this actually happen? Researchers didn’t know how much lightning impacted forests—until now. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a computer model to provide what they claim to be the first estimate of lightning’s impact on …
Read More »
An independent engineer known for modifying Apple products today revealed a new accessory that adds a fully functional USB-C port to older iPhones with Lightning ports via a custom-designed case. Ken Pillonel, the Swiss robotics engineer who gained attention in 2021 after adding a USB-C port to an iPhone X through hardware modification, has launched a commercial product that enables …
Read More »