NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers captured a stunning photograph of one of nature’s most elusive phenomena from the International Space Station on July 3, 2025, initially believing she had documented a sprite, a rare form of atmospheric lightning, only to discover she had captured something even more extraordinary: a gigantic jet.
“Nichole Ayers caught a rare and spectacular form of a TLE from the International Space Station — a gigantic jet,” confirmed Dr. Burcu Kosar, Principal Investigator of NASA’s Spritacular project. The discovery represents one of the clearest views of this atmospheric phenomenon ever documented from space.
I knew lightning could strike horizontally and downward. But never realized it could go up. That just seems so weird to me.
I guess it’s less strange than ball lightning though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
They’re called Sprites!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning)
Article says this is specifically not a sprite.