What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting

 (quantamagazine.org)

76 points | by Tomte 2 days ago

6 comments

  • nomilk 3 hours ago
    That 7 second video of a small rocket shot into a cloud to induce a lightning strike (about half way down the article) is incredible.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJIiX9_c_M

    Any ideas why the lightning strike appears mostly green (and momentarily purple and orange)?

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  • joshikarthikey 18 minutes ago
    Soooo you are telling me that we still haven't fully understood something as fundamental as lightning and it's still an active area of research...
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    • nephihaha 3 minutes ago
      Never mind this kind of lightning, it gets really interesting when we start to look at ball lightning, which is very real but rarely sighted.
  • fguerraz 1 hour ago
    So, nothing new?

    The cosmic ray hypothesis has been dominant for a few years now.

    This magazine…

  • cinderelacinder 4 hours ago
    [flagged]
  • freehorse 1 hour ago
    Tl;dr lightings may be caused by electrons/positrons from outer space hitting a cloud and initiating an "avalanche" of electrons.
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    • nephihaha 2 minutes ago
      Much of the time they occur when two weather fronts of different temperatures collide with each other.
    • pfdietz 1 hour ago
      Cosmic rays are mostly protons, not electrons or positrons. You're mixing up to separate theories in the article.
  • metalman 3 hours ago
    just in case you missed it, all matter carrys a charge, and all space(and matter) has energy radiating through it, making the universe an energy gradient.

    sometimes you can see it happening.