Subscribe Now
Choose a package that suits your preferences.
Start Free Account
Get access to 7 premium stories every month for FREE!
Already a Subscriber?
Current print subscriber? Activate your complimentary Digital account.
Gemini Observatory’s north cloud cam atop Mauna Kea captures a lightning sprite, otherwise known as “upward lightning,” early Monday morning. According to National Geographic, these rare events were thought to be a myth until photographed in 1989. Lightning sprites can reach the edge of space and are thought to be produced when discharged electricity shoots out from the top of a cloud during powerful thunderstorms or hurricanes, according to the magazine.