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原文:
There is something very unusual in this picture of the Earth — can you find it? A fleeting phenomenon once thought to be only a legend has been newly caught if you know just where to look. The featured image was taken from the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) in late April and shows familiar ISS solar panels on the far left and part of a robotic arm to the far right. The rarely imaged phenomenon is known as a red sprite and it can be seen, albeit faintly, just over the bright area on the image right. This bright area and the red sprite are different types of lightning, with the white flash the more typical type. Although sprites have been reported anecdotally for as long as 300 years, they were first caught on film in 1989 — by accident. Much remains unknown about sprites including how they occur, their effect on the atmospheric global electric circuit, and if they are somehow related to other upper atmospheric lightning phenomena such as blue jets or terrestrial gamma flashes. Free APOD Lectures: Editor to Speak in January in Philadelphia and New York City
中文翻譯:
在這張地球的圖片中，有一個非常不尋常的現象 – 你能找到它嗎？這個短暫的現象曾被認為僅僅是一個傳說，但最近它被捕捉到了。如果你仔細觀察圖片，就會發現它是從國際空間站 (ISS) 發射的，拍攝於四月的末尾，左側是熟悉的 ISS 太陽能板，右側則是機器手臂的一部分。而這個稀有的現象被稱為紅色精靈 (red sprite)，雖然它在圖片右側的亮區上方只隱約可見。這個亮區和紅色精靈是兩種不同類型的閃電，白色的閃光則是較為常見的類型。雖然紅色精靈的目擊歷史可以追溯到300年前，但直到1989年才首次意外地被拍攝到。關於紅色精靈仍有很多未知，包括它們如何發生、對大氣全球電路的影響，以及它們是否與其他上層大氣閃電現象（如藍色噴流或地面伽馬射線閃爍）有關。
#紅色精靈 #自然奇觀 #國際空間站 #大氣現象 #閃電的秘密 #探索宇宙 #科學奇蹟
來源:NASA每日圖片
