NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers has made history by capturing an extremely rare and spectacular form of a Transient Luminous Event (TLE) – a gigantic jet. The International Space Station (ISS) observer confirmed the sighting on July 3, 2025.
According to Dr. Burcu Kosar, Principal Investigator of the Spritacular project, gigantic jets are powerful electrical discharges that extend from thunderstorms into the upper atmosphere. They occur when turbulent conditions at storm tops allow lightning to escape and rise towards space, creating an electrical bridge between clouds and the upper atmosphere.
In contrast, sprites are brief, colorful flashes of light that occur high above thunderstorms in the mesosphere. Unlike gigantic jets, which burst upward from thundercloud tops, sprites form independently higher up in the atmosphere following powerful lightning strikes.
Ayers’ capture is a rare sighting of a gigantic jet, which is part of a larger suite of high-altitude electrical activity known as TLEs. The Spritacular project invites the public to submit photos of jets, sprites, or other TLEs at Spritacular.org, helping scientists study these fascinating phenomena in the night sky.
Source: https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/a-gigantic-jet-caught-on-camera-a-spritacular-moment-for-nasa-astronaut-nicole-ayers