An incredible "gigantic jet" – an extremely-rare type of upper-atmospheric lightning – was photographed from the International Space Station on Friday morning.
This is the clearest photo we have EVER seen of a gigantic jet from above.
Nichole Rhea Ayers is a major in the U.S. Air Force and a NASA astronaut. She launched to the International Space Station as a pilot of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission on March 14, and will be returning to Earth soon.
On Thursday morning, July3, she captured an unbelievable photo of an ultra-rare GIANT JET. The International Space Station was over Mexico and the southern U.S. at the time.
It looks like the instigating thunderstorm was happening somewhere near Sabinas in Coahuila, Mexico around 1:30 a.m. Central time Thursday.
Gigantic jets are a subset of “blue jets,” which themselves are a type of TLE — or transient luminous event, often referred to as “upper-atmospheric lightning.” There are different types of TLEs, including red “sprites,” green “elves” and blue jets.
Blue jets are the rarest. Elves and sprites occur high above thunderstorms, but jets bridge a key gap between a thunderstorm and the stratosphere high above. Sometimes they even reach up to the base of the mesosphere — the height at which meteors burn up!