From Whence Lightning – Nautilus

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THunderheads, these massive storm clouds where the forms of lightning hosted a mystery for millennia. Although atmospheric scientists have long understood that lightning comes from differences in electric fields in the clouds and between clouds and earth, the cascade of events that trigger the formation and discharge of dramatic lightnings were not fully understood or described.

Now, researchers from Pennsylvania State University have proposed the most detailed description of these precursor events to date.

First of all, solid electric fields accumulate in the thunder clouds. Then, certain types of electrons, which have been sown by cosmic spaces of space, multiply in these electric fields. Then, the electrons break nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the air, producing X -rays and triggering enormous additional electrons (well called electrons avalanche). These avalanches in turn produce high -energy photons that generate intense bolts of light and heat.

Report on their use of complex mathematical models to validate field observations, scientists have published their results JGR atmospheres.

According to the US National Weather Service, lightning flashes somewhere on Earth about 100 times per second. Now science has lit this common phenomenon.

Image of lead: Triff / Shutterstock

• Bob Grant

  Published on July 30, 2025

  Bob Grant is the editor -in -chief of Nautilus.