Astronaut Spots Bizarre Giant Jet Blasting Into Space

Bright Side

🚀 An astronaut looked down at Earth… and saw something totally unexpected — a massive, bizarre jet of energy blasting into space! 💥 Was it lightning? A plasma burst? Or something even weirder? In this video, we’ll break down what scientists think is going on, why it’s so rare, and how it could change what we know about storms and space. 🌩🌌 It's like nature opened a hidden trapdoor and let loose a cosmic firework show — and we’ve got the footage. If you're into space mysteries, atmospheric oddities, or just jaw-dropping moments caught from orbit, you don’t want to miss this. 👨‍🚀🌍  Credit: Gigantic Jets over Himalayan: by Li Xuanhua / NASA, https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240618.html NASA / YouTube The Inverted Stegosaurus / YouTube Twister Hunter / YouTube Roman Tregubov / YouTube CBS News Sacramento / YouTube jaynes network / YouTube Texas Food Dude / YouTube HISTORY / YouTube Frankie Lucena / YouTube Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00This terrifying but very much real image emerged just recently.

00:05In it, you can see something that looks like it belongs in a science fiction movie.

00:10From far above Earth, aboard the International Space Station,

00:14an astronaut captured something astonishing over Louisiana.

00:19A gigantic jet blasting upward straight into the sky.

00:23It looks as if Earth is sending a signal skyward.

00:26Can science explain this eerie phenomenon?

00:30Apparently, it can.

00:32This energy blast is called a gigantic jet,

00:35and it's one of the rarest and most powerful kinds of lightning we know about.

00:40Unlike regular lightning, which strikes down toward the ground,

00:44gigantic jets shoot up from storm clouds,

00:47and they can stretch for more than 50 miles into the sky.

00:51Sometimes they even reach the ionosphere,

00:53the layer where Earth's atmosphere starts blending into outer space.

00:57To give you an idea, space officially starts around 62 miles above sea level,

01:03and the ionosphere stretches from about 50 to 400 miles up.

01:09Shockingly, scientists have only known about gigantic jets for about 20 years,

01:14and we're still figuring out exactly how they work.

01:17One theory is that something inside the storm cloud blocks the lightning from escaping downward.

01:24So all this pent-up energy looks for another way out and ends up blasting upward into the sky.

01:30But honestly, we still don't fully understand why it happens.

01:35Gigantic jets are also extremely rare.

01:38Scientists think that they happen only around a thousand times a year on the entire planet,

01:42and when they do happen, they carry a lot of energy.

01:46We're talking more than 50 times the power of a normal lightning bolt.

01:51The strongest gigantic jet ever recorded happened in Oklahoma in May 2018.

01:57It was intense, reaching a temperature of 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit

02:01and releasing about 60 times more energy than regular lightning.

02:06In other words, it was a huge burst of electricity flying straight into the sky.

02:10Most of the photos we have of gigantic jets come from satellites or astronauts on the International Space Station.

02:19But a few have also been captured from airplanes flying over storms.

02:23The latest jaw-dropping image was taken on November 19, 2024, by an astronaut aboard the ISS.

02:32At first, the picture wasn't released by NASA or any space agency.

02:36But one photographer, known for tracking and photographing rare lightning events, found the photo by accident.

02:43He was browsing through a NASA-run website called the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth,

02:48which hosts photos taken by astronauts.

02:52There, he spotted images showing a giant lightning jet.

02:56Eventually, the photos were brought to public attention on February 26, 2025,

03:01and they've also been turned into a time-lapse video on YouTube.

03:06We still don't know exactly about the exact spot where the jet happened.

03:10Thick storm clouds covered the ground in the pictures.

03:13But based on where the ISS was flying at the time,

03:17the jet probably happened just off the coast of New Orleans.

03:21Speaking of other images of the gigantic jets,

03:24A photographer living in Puerto Rico was taking pictures of a storm moving through the area.

03:30That same storm would later grow into Hurricane Franklin.

03:34While watching the skies, he saw something truly amazing.

03:38Several massive lightning bolts shooting straight up out of the storm clouds,

03:42stopping just below the edge of space.

03:45No wonder.

03:46According to a 2022 study,

03:49gigantic jets happen most often in tropical areas,

03:52and they're more likely during fast-growing storms,

03:55like Hurricane Franklin.

03:58Gigantic jets often end with thin, red, branch-like lightning tendrils.

04:03These faint red flashes are very similar to another rare type of lightning called sprites.

04:08Those sometimes look like giant glowing jellyfish in the sky.

04:13In 2023, an astronomer named Stanislav Kaniansky in Slovakia

04:18captured one of the clearest images of a sprite ever.

04:21It happened during a thunderstorm over central Europe on August 14th,

04:25and he spotted it near his home.

04:29In the photo, you can see a huge glowing red structure with zigzag patterns

04:34stretching over 31 miles across the sky.

04:37But like all sprites,

04:39it only lasted a fraction of a second before fading away.

04:44Sprites happen when lightning sends electrical energy upward

04:47into the upper part of Earth's atmosphere instead of just downward like regular lightning.

04:53This energy creates glowing strands of plasma,

04:56which is basically electrified gas way up in the ionosphere.

05:00Since sprites are so fast and often hidden by thick clouds,

05:04they're very hard to photograph.

05:06But Kaniansky got lucky.

05:08The thunderstorm was about 200 miles away from him.

05:11So, he had a clear view just above the tops of the storm clouds.

05:16That perfect angle helped him capture this stunning phenomenon.

05:20There are many different kinds of lightning,

05:23and some of them are not only rare but also super dangerous.

05:28Let's take ball lightning, for example.

05:30It's exactly what it sounds like,

05:32a glowing, floating ball of light that appears during thunderstorms.

05:36It's also one of the weirdest and most mysterious forms of lightning.

05:41People have seen these strange light balls,

05:43usually about the size of a grapefruit,

05:45slowly spinning or hovering just above the ground.

05:48Some even say they've seen them float through closed windows

05:52or suddenly appear indoors,

05:54then vanish after about 10 seconds.

05:58For hundreds of years,

06:00no one really knew what caused ball lightning.

06:03Scientists had no explanation,

06:04and most sightings were based on eyewitness stories.

06:08Then, in 2012,

06:09someone finally managed to capture ball lightning on camera.

06:13Since then,

06:14different ideas have come up to explain what ball lightning really is.

06:19One of the newest theories suggests

06:21that the ball is actually a tight bubble of super compressed air.

06:26This compressed air bends and spins white light in all directions,

06:30making it look like a glowing ball rolling around in the sky.

06:35And according to the researchers,

06:37ball lightning can be almost a billion times more intense

06:40than regular lightning that moves in a straight line.

06:43Then, there are elves.

06:46They look a lot like sprites,

06:47but instead of looking like jellyfish or dancing shapes,

06:51elves appear as huge glowing rings or halos in the sky.

06:55And they're massive.

06:57An elf can spread out to be up to 185 miles wide.

07:02You can even spot them from space or through thin clouds during the day.

07:08Dark lightning is probably one of the strangest types of lightning,

07:11and most people don't even know it exists.

07:15Unlike regular lightning,

07:16it doesn't produce a bright flash.

07:18Instead, it gives off intense bursts of radiation,

07:22especially gamma rays,

07:23the most energetic form of light found in nature.

07:27Dark lightning happens when high-speed electrons

07:29slam into air molecules inside a storm cloud.

07:33This creates a burst of gamma rays.

07:35They're so strong that they can mess with satellites

07:38hundreds of miles away in space.

07:40In rare cases,

07:42when a plane flies through a thunderstorm,

07:43these flashes can hit the aircraft.

07:46Some passengers could get a quick dose of radiation,

07:49about the same as a full-body CT scan.

07:53But worry not.

07:54Scientists say these occasions are extremely rare

07:57and not a reason to be afraid of flying.

08:00And finally,

08:02there's positive lightning.

08:04You see,

08:05lightning is still kind of a mystery,

08:07even for scientists.

08:08But here's the basic idea.

08:10Inside a storm cloud,

08:11tiny pieces of ice bump into each other

08:14and build up electric charges.

08:16Some become positive,

08:18others negative.

08:19Most of the lightning we see

08:21comes from the bottom of the cloud

08:22where there are lots of negative charges.

08:25These reach down and zap the ground.

08:28But sometimes,

08:30lightning comes from the top of the cloud

08:31where positive charges hang out.

08:34That's called positive lightning

08:35and it only makes up

08:37about 5 to 10% of lightning strikes.

08:40Most of the time,

08:41those positive charges

08:42just zap other parts of the cloud.

08:44But sometimes,

08:45they shoot all the way down to the ground.

08:48That's why positive lightning can strike

08:50even when the sky looks clear.

08:52Because it comes from way up high in the cloud,

08:55sometimes miles away from the storm itself.

08:58The scariest part

08:59is that regular lightning

09:01can reach about 300 million volts.

09:04While the charge of positive lightning

09:06can be up to a billion volts.

09:08That means

09:09positive lightning

09:10is much stronger

09:11and more dangerous.

09:15That's it for today.

09:17So hey,

09:17if you pacified your curiosity,

09:19then give the video a like

09:21and share it with your friends.

09:22Or if you want more,

09:23just click on these videos

09:24and stay on the bright side.

09:26And we'll be right back to the cloud.

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