In another spectacular show, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) recently saw a blue jet. Describe their observations in the diary Nature, they said it was captured by their instruments on February 26, 2019. Blue beam illumination, also known as Upper Atmospheric illumination, is a bolt of lightning that shoots up after thunderstorms.
The phenomenon was spotted by the European Atmosphere Space Interactions Monitors near Naru Island in the Pacific Ocean. The scientists report seeing five intense flashes of blue light, each lasting about 10 to 20 milliseconds. The blue ray then fanned out from the cloud in a narrow cone shape that extended into the stratosphere, the atmospheric layer extending about 6 to 31 miles (10 to 50 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface, as described by livescience.com.
‘elves spotted’
In addition to the blue jets, researchers also saw another phenomenon that occurs in the upper atmosphere. This phenomenon is known as “elves” and stands for light emissions and very low-frequency disturbances from electromagnetic pulse sources. The visualization of the phenomenon by an animated artist has now been released by the European Space Agency (ESA). Check it out here:
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In another news from ESA, a UK-designed spacecraft made its maiden flight past Venus on its way to the sun in a mission to decipher the mysteries of the neighboring planet. The spacecraft is expected to tilt at an angle under the influence of the sun’s gravity, as it will face Venus to make observations that will help scientists learn more about the planet. The Solar Orbiter’s perihelion to the sun occurred on December 27, around 12:39 UTC (13:39 CET) during the holiday season, according to ESA. The spacecraft will fly about 7,500 km from the Venus cloud tops.
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