Rarely Seen 'Red Sprites' Have Been Glimpsed in The Sky Above Chile



Red sprites, or bright red streaks in the sky, are visible in this stunning photograph of the skies over Chile's Atacama Desert obtained close to the La Silla Observatory of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Large-scale electrical discharges known as red sprites typically occur high above thunderstorm clouds and are caused by positive lightning strikes between an overlying thundercloud and the earth.

The red sprites do, however, occasionally show 50–90 kilometers (31–55 miles) up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Folktales about enigmatic red lights in the sky have been circulated for generations, but were typically brushed off by experts.

RedSpritesInChile

Red sprites, or bright red streaks, may be seen in this image, which was captured from ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Even a meteor appears to add to the beauty of this picture. The ESO (Zdenek Bardon)

The scientific community allegedly disregarded the instances even when well-regarded pilots or scientists (such as Nobel Prize-winning physicist CTR Wilson) described them.

However, the perception of red sprites has shifted since 1989, when researchers from the University of Minnesota actually took photographs of them.

Red sprites are still a relatively uncommon event, despite having been seen on camera and on film thousands of times, notably by astronauts on the International Space Station.

This latest image from the ESO resembles a painting in several ways.

Only because to the perspective of the camera, which is mounted on the platform of ESO's 3.6-meter (12-foot) telescope at La Silla, do the red sprites appear low on the horizon. The picture's background has an airglow-like green color.

According to ESO, sunlight knocks electrons off nitrogen and oxygen in Earth's atmosphere during the day, and these electrons recombine with the atoms and molecules during the night, giving the elements their characteristic glow.

Typically, airglow is only visible in completely dark skies without any artificial light.

La Silla is the ideal place for photographing these uncommon phenomena because to its remoteness, high altitude, and lack of light pollution.

Universe Today was the original publisher of this article. Check out the original article.

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