Photo of the Day Have you ever watched a lightning storm in awe? You're not alone. Details of what causes lightning are still being researched, but it is known that inside some clouds, internal updrafts cause collisions between ice and snow that slowly separate charges between cloud tops and bottoms. The rapid electrical discharges [...]
Photo of the Day What are those red filaments in the sky? They are a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 35 years ago: red sprites. Research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about [...]
Shortly after the launch of the Apollo 12 mission, lightning struck the Apollo Saturn V rocket causing major electrical malfunctions and panic amongst the astronauts and engineers, jeopardizing the mission. Fortunately, a steely eyed missile man named John Aaron was able to call out the famous SCE to AUX command allowing the on board astronauts [...]
