It was the fourth of July, and up in space, orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station, Nichole Ayers captured an image that is so unusual, it seems fake.
Like massive electric fireworks, it detonated in the thin air up to 55 miles in altitude.
Earth.com reported:
“These brief spectacles – blue jets, red sprites, violet halos, ultraviolet rings – are collectively known as transient luminous events, or TLEs.”
What was once pilot’s folklore began to be studied by ‘eyes in space’.
“The International Space Station (ISS) has changed that by offering an unobstructed seat above the storms, where specialized cameras and sensors capture every fleeting spark.”
NASA Astronaut on ISS caught this sprite over the U.S. this morning. Even nature knew it was the Fourth of July. pic.twitter.com/RsbtV5JMvn
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) July 9, 2025
Originally thought to be a sprite, it’s since been confirmed to be an even rarer form of a Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) — a gigantic jet.
NASA website reported:
“’Nichole Ayers caught a rare and spectacular form of a TLE from the International Space Station — a gigantic jet’, said Dr. Burcu Kosar, Principal Investigator of the Spritacular project. ”
Gigantic jets are a massive electrical discharge ‘that extends from the top of a thunderstorm into the upper atmosphere’.
“They are typically observed by chance — often spotted by airline passengers or captured unintentionally by ground-based cameras aimed at other phenomena.
Gigantic jets appear when the turbulent conditions at towering thunderstorm tops allow for lightning to escape the thunderstorm, propagating upwards toward space.”
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