(Matthew Dominick/NASA via SWNS)
In a stunning visual revelation from above Earth’s atmosphere, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick recently documented a breathtaking and rare celestial event that most humans will never witness: a vivid red sprite dancing above the storms of Central Africa.
During the final days of his seven-month mission aboard the International Space Station, Dominick captured an extraordinary moment that scientists describe as a mysterious and poorly understood atmospheric phenomenon. While preparing to photograph Cairo, the astronaut unexpectedly encountered what researchers call a Transient Luminous Event (TLE) – a spectacular electrical discharge that occurs high above thunderstorms.
“A red sprite shoots out above a lightning strike over Central Africa,” Dominick details in a post on X. “I was getting setup to take images of Cairo. On the approach across Africa there was a bunch of lightning. Out of 800 or so images there was a red sprite!”
According to NASA, these ephemeral light shows are “colorful bursts of energy that appear above storms as a result of lightning activity occurring in and below storms on Earth.”
Occurring between 40 and 80 kilometers above the ground, these red sprites are estimated to span an impressive 14 by 26 kilometers.
NASA further explains that these “bright red flashes… are a less understood phenomena associated with powerful lightning events and appear high above the clouds in the mesosphere” – a tantalizing glimpse into the mysterious electrical dynamics of our planet’s upper atmosphere.
Dominick’s remarkable capture came just days before he and his crewmates – NASA astronauts Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin – completed their mission, splashing down safely off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, on Friday, Oct. 25.
The unexpected discovery serves as a reminder of the continuous wonders waiting to be observed from humanity’s unique vantage point in space, where the boundaries between atmospheric science and pure visual poetry blur into something truly extraordinary.
SWNS writer Dean Murray contributed to this report.
