Questions tagged [lightning]
Questions regarding discharge of electrical charges built up inside stormclouds to another object.
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Can rocket engines produce high voltages?
I was reading Michael Collins' account of the Apollo 11 TLI burn [1], and I wonder wheter the "flashes", "lightning", "sparks flying" and "insistent fireflies" ...
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What would have happened if lightning struck the Orion LES instead of the umbilical tower?
Yesterday, a lightning struck the SLS' umbilical tower during a scrubbed wet dress rehearsal.
Is it normal for a lightning to strike the umbilical tower instead of the 3 lightning arresters around the ...
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Where is http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/?
In the question Methods of lightning detection on Mars? I included an image of
A lightning detector at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida:
Source
The Wikimedia's page cites http://thunder....
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Are there methods of lightning detection on Mars?
Teslarati's NASA’s next Mars rover will pave the way for humans includes the graphic below which is an artists conception of a dust storm on mars. It shows what looks like lightning or some kind of ...
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How did the Venus Express detect lightning?
I found it very interesting (especially the sound recording) of the Venus Express detecting lightning on the planet Venus.
I found it strange watching the ' national geographic ' video about the ...
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Why are lightning towers at launch pads topped with big hollow tubes with spiral windings and not "lightning rod-shaped" lightning rods?
https://xkcd.com/2107/
Why are the lightning towers around launch pads topped with big hollow tubes with spiral windings? Why not conventional lightning rods - big metal rods with pointy things at ...
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Earth-based lightning on the Space Station channel
When watching the NASA channel (such as on YouTube) you see clouds and occasionally land forms. Why is it we never see electric storms on Earth ?
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Beyond the Apollo 12 incident, have there been any instances of triggered lightning?
As explained in this answer, the ionised plumes of engine exhausts can provide a low-resistance route for lightning strikes during a launch, potentially endangering the vehicle. This is thought to ...
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What is 'triggered lightning'?
In NASA's pre-launch briefing for Parker Solar Probe, the Weather Officer Kathy Rice discusses briefly the possibility of 'triggered lightning'. See around 40:55 in this video1.
She explains:
We ...
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Atmospheric effects on a space elevator
Were I able to build a space elevator (ignoring for the moment that I can't due to current material science etc), what issues would there be relating to atmospheric conditions? Presumably it would be ...
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How strong is the electric charge capacity of Martian dust storms?
In my answer to What would it feel like to be in a Martian dust storm? I assert that Martian dust storms would be best avoided, and as one of the reasons (besides carrying corrosive chemicals like ...
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Do rocket exhaust plumes really provide a pathway for lightning?
This Wikipedia article states that
Rocket exhaust plumes provided a pathway for lightning when it was witnessed striking the Apollo 12 rocket shortly after takeoff.
My question is whether this ...
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What are the chances of getting struck by lightning while in Earth orbit?
Getting struck by lighting in Earths upper atmosphere is a real possibility. It is often found in the 100km range, and can reach 400 km (250 mi) in diameter. The ISS has an orbit of 400km, and as ...
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