A newly unveiled photo captured by an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) provides a rare glimpse at an upward-shooting “gigantic jet” of lightning likely extending more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the U.S. coast.
The striking image was taken by an unnamed ISS crewmember on Nov. 19, 2024, but it was not initially shared by NASA or any other space organization. However, photographer Frankie Lucena, who specializes in capturing giant lightning sprites, stumbled across photos of the event on the Gateway to Astronaut photography of Earth website and shared them with Spaceweather.com, which reshared the shots Feb. 26.
“I checked the ISS database for pictures before and after the event, and found that there were 4 photos [of lightning] in all,” Lucena told Spaceweather.com. The images can be viewed in a time-lapse video posted on YouTube, but only one has an associated jet.
The exact location of the jet is unclear because thunderclouds are covering Earth’s surface in the images. However, based on the position of the ISS at the time, the jet likely occurred just off the coast of New Orleans, according to Spaceweather.com.
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Gigantic jets are massive lightning bolts that shoot upward from thunderstorms when the charged layers of the clouds get temporarily inverted. They mainly give off a blue light due to the high levels of nitrogen in the upper atmosphere and usually last less than a second.
Most observed gigantic jets reach the ionosphere — the part of the atmosphere that begins around 50 miles above Earth’s surface and contains charged particles captured from the sun. This has earned the phenomenon the nickname “Earth’s tallest lightning,” according to Spaceweather.com. However, the exact height of the newly photographed bolt is unclear.
Gigantic jets are also extremely energetic. The most powerful recorded example of this phenomenon, which occurred during a thunderstorm over Oklahoma in May 2018, contained roughly 60 times more energy than a standard lightning bolt and reached up to 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit (4,400 degrees Celsius).
These jets often terminate with tendrils of branching red lightning, which can be faintly seen in the new image. These additional discharges are very similar to “sprites,” which often look like giant electric jellyfish. However, gigantic jets are a separate phenomenon from traditional sprites, which occur without jets, according to EarthSky.com.
Gigantic jets were first discovered relatively recently, in 2001 — so only a few dozen photographs of these massive bolts have ever been captured, according to Spaceweather.com. However, scientists think there could be up to 1,000 unseen jets every year.
Most of these images have been taken from space, but some others, including a breathtaking image from September 2018, have also been snapped by airplane passengers flying over thunderstorms.
