A NASA astronaut captured a fascinating weather phenomenon that still has scientists scratching their heads.
Nichole Ayers is currently living on the International Space Station for a six-month NASA mission.
On March 14, the US Air Force Major rocketed 250 miles from Earth alongside fellow Crew-10 members Anne McClain, Takuya Onishi, Kirill Peskov, Jonny Kim, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky.
The team relieved Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams after their unexpected extended stay.
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And while they're busy maintaining the ISS and carrying out important experiments, they also get the incredible experience of viewing our planet from above.
Ayers previously shared her envy-inducing view of the Southern Lights from space, as well as some spectacular sunrises - which those on the ISS witness 16 times a day.
On Thursday (July 3) Ayers took to Twitter to share another amazing photo.
This time, it's of a weather event that looks straight out of a sci-fi movie - especially from above!
"Just. Wow. As we went over Mexico and the US this morning, I caught this sprite," Ayers wrote, further explaining: "Sprites are TLEs or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below.
"We have a great view above the clouds, so scientists can use these types of pictures to better understand the formation, characteristics, and relationship of TLEs to thunderstorms."
Reacting to the incredible photo, one social media user said: "That is the coolest red sprite image I have ever seen."
"Wow! Read about them but I have only seen pictures from a mountaintop or an aircraft…never from the space station. That’s really cool!" a second added.
"That’s an incredible phenomenon. Great capture," a third said.
"As a SciFi fan, part of me can't accept that this isn't some experiment gone wrong and that someone opened a portal to another world," somebody else pondered.
Shockingly, the first-ever video proof of sprites was captured pretty recently - some 36 years ago.
As NASA explains, in 1989 a University of Minnesota team accidentally filmed two glowing blobs above a thunderstorm while testing a low-light TV camera.
Though low-res, that chance capture kicked off the study of sprites and other Transient Luminous Events.
There's still so much scientists don't know about sprites, though.
This includes how often they flash into view, what specific upper-atmospheric conditions spark their strange shapes and how they feed into Earth’s global electric circuit.
Perhaps it's one of those mysteries that will soon be answered!
Topics: International Space Station, Space, Science, Earth, NASA
Ellie Kemp