Astronaut Spots Rare and Ethereal 'Transient Luminous Event' From ISS (cnet.com) 11
"Transient luminous event" sounds like a euphemism for a ghost, but it's actually a beautiful phenomenon that can sometimes be seen from the International Space Station. European Space Agency astronaut and current ISS resident Thomas Pesquet shared a view of an ethereal blue glow emerging over Europe. CNET reports: Transient luminous events are caused by upper-atmospheric lightning. This one happened in early September and Pesquet tweeted about it this week, calling it "a very rare occurrence." "What is fascinating about this lightning is that just a few decades ago they had been observed anecdotally by pilots and scientists were not convinced they actually existed," Pesquet said on Flickr. "Fast forward a few years and we can confirm elves, and sprites are very real and could be influencing our climate too!" Pesquet's image represents a single frame from a time-lapse taken from the station. The image would be a beauty just for the way it shows the curve of Earth and the twinkling lights of Europe below. The transient luminous event captured at its finest moment takes it to the next level.
Sprites have been real for some time (Score:2, Offtopic)
Sprites have been a feature of the graphics chips in the Atari and Amiga computers in the eighties
Re: (Score:3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning) [wikipedia.org]
Some of the types of these upper-atmospheric transient events are so rare that they're very poorly documented and understood. Their very existence has been confirmed only thirty years ago or so. The TARANIS satellite was supposed to study them in detail, but unfortunately got lost during a failed launch.
Why a new descriptor? (Score:2)
"transient luminous event" - Was "upper-atmosphere lightning" too clear?
Why the push to rename stuff?
A "fire" is now a "thermal event".
An "explosion" is now called "rapid disassembly".
A rush to avoid emotional associations with some words?
[side-note: a relative of mine works for a company where "fire" and "explosion" rarely come up in discussion of their products, but Corporate says that those words can *never* be used in any communications. Could be career-affecting if you do.]
Re: (Score:2)
"transient luminous event" - Was "upper-atmosphere lightning" too clear?
My understanding is that not all of these events are instances of lightning.
Re: Why a new descriptor? (Score:2)
I understand using softened big word terms to pacify the angry masses during a political discussion, but they feel the need to use them when describing lightning?
Is this some "yes we are smart" thing?
Re: (Score:2)
"fire" and "explosion" rarely come up in discussion of their products, but Corporate says that those words can *never* be used in any communications
Tesla?
Re: Why a new descriptor? (Score:2)
Because they feel that using these new terms won't get the plebs' underroos in a bunch.
"That house isn't on fire, it's just undergoing a thermally assisted transformation event." X-{
Just Saying (Score:1)
I'm not saying it's aliens. But
Orgone energy is supposed to be blue. (Score:1)
Check the works of Dr. James Demeo, following on Wilhelm Reich who connected life energy with energies in space.
Red sprites and blue jets (Score:2)
These have been seen by pilots for all of high altitude flying history. And they were observed by astronauts during the history of orbital space flight.
How is any of this news?