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)?

  • deepandmeaning 3 hours ago

    I'm imagining it's something related to the copper wire.

  • teh_infallible 2 hours ago

    I always wanted to replicate this with a helium balloon and a long, wet string coated with copper filings.

    • CamelCaseCondo 44 minutes ago

      Maybe just salt water and skip the filings?

    • batch12 43 minutes ago

      You'd probably need a very large balloon to overcome the weight of the string

fguerraz 1 hour ago

So, nothing new?

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

This magazine…

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.

  • pfdietz 41 minutes ago

    Cosmic rays are mostly protons, not electrons or positrons. You're mixing up to separate theories in the article.

metalman 2 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.