Welcome to the Tuesday Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light\u2014a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We’ll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we’ll take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.<\/p>\n
I did not expect to feature NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers in the Tuesday Telescope so soon, but a recent photo she shared is just sublime. (In case you missed it, we wrote about her photo of lightning from space about a month ago.)<\/p>\n
This week Ayers has a time-lapse sequence she captured from the Cupola as the International Space Station soared near Central and South America.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoooooo much going on in this picture,\u201d Ayers wrote on the social media site X. \u201cYou can see Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, with South America off in the distance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most distinct feature is a lightning strike near Panama City. This illuminates the clouds below. Above the strike is a reddish phenomenon known as a sprite, which sometimes occurs in the atmosphere between 50 and 90 km above a lightning strike near the surface of the planet. This appears to be a \u201cjellyfish\u201d sprite. It is rendered beautifully.<\/p>\n
But wait, there\u2019s more! The lightning strike is so bright that its reflection can be seen in the space station\u2019s structure, at the top of the image. Additionally the atmosphere\u2019s airglow can be clearly seen in the orange line just above the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
All in all, it\u2019s a wonderful photo, and I can\u2019t wait to see what other treasures Ayers sends down from on high.<\/p>\n
Source: Nichole Ayers\/NASA<\/p>\n
Do you want to submit a photo for the Daily Telescope? Reach out and say hello.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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