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Scientists Discover A New Kind Of Lightning

Posted by timothy on from the zap-zap dept.

Exoman writes "Lightning that shoots upward up to 60 miles from the clouds? A team of researchers led by Han-Tzong Su of the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, videotaped the discharges last July from an observatory on the southern tip of the island. The lightning was firing from the top of thunderclouds more than 300 miles away across the South China Sea. The researchers reported their work Thursday in the journal Nature."

1 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. columbia by qed123 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The last time I heard about weird electical lightning formations was when they were throwing around ideas and someone had a suspiscious picture.

    from space.com
    While it's not likely Columbia was struck by lightning flying through clear skies some 40 miles high, it is possible that some kind of electrical event took place. At least one image is reported to exist in which it appears something like lightning is striking, or discharging from, the shuttle as it approached the California coast.

    Also a little more detail in this article.

    I never heard anything else so apparantly they decided that the picture was fake or irrelevant, I guess. I wasn't able to find any more current info.