This article talks about how there was a new part of lightning striking that was just discovered. Apparently, just before lightning strikes, there is a flash of lightning that is not visible to the human eye. Dark lightning is a burst of gamma rays colliding with air particles. Scientists also call this process terrestrial gamma ray flashes. Dark lightning is the most energetic radiation produced anywhere naturally on earth, and now is thought to be an intrinsic part of lightning strikes.
Themes of the nature of science:
-Science is collaborative: This has been an ongoing study process since 1991, only recently did Nikolai Østgaard take the time to do extremely in-depth research into it, and he did it with a team of many other scientists.
-Science is based on evidence: Satalites have been the main things collecting data for this, and without data, this wouldn't have been published.
-Role of motivation and curiosity: If it wasn't for Professor Østgaard's interest in this, he would have never taken the time to bring together a team of scientists to tackle this task in the fist place.
By: Cameron Kurisko
I was able to find this video about dark lightning: http://news.yahoo.com/dark-lightning-linked-luminous-twin-140826108.html
ReplyDeleteHe mentions that each time dark lightning strikes it is 1 million times more powerful than regular lightning. Dark lightning also spreads all over instead of in one bolt of lightning and there is a "bolt" of dark lightning for every thousand normal bolts. Passengers on airplanes are the group at risk but the chances are slim even if the plane flew through a storm. However, if a plane was struck with dark lightning it is extremely likely that passengers would die in seconds from high levels of radiation. The cause would not be seen by those on the ground and would not be known until radiation test were done. I thought that this topic was super interesting and proves that new things can always be discovered.