Lightning sprites are out-of-this-worldNovember 21st, 2011 in
Space & Earth / Space Exploration This is a sprite "streamer" as
it might appear in the atmosphere of Saturn, created in a Tel
Aviv University lab. Credit: American Friends of Tel Aviv
University (AFTAU) Only a few decades ago, scientists discovered
the existence of "sprites" 30 to 55 miles above the surface of
the Earth. They're offshoots of electric discharges caused by
lightning storms, and a valuable window into the composition of
our atmosphere. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University say that
sprites are not a phenomenon specific to our planet. Jupiter and
Saturn experience lightning storms with flashes 1,000 or more
times more powerful than those on Earth, says Ph.D. student
Daria Dubrovin. With her supervisors Prof. Colin Price of TAU's
Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences and Prof. Yoav
Yair of the Open University of Israel, and collaborators Prof.
Ute Ebert and Dr. Sander Nijdam from the Eindhoven Technical
University in Holland