Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2022 September 12 [2]The featured image shows a dark sky with many complex red streakes. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. Red Sprite Lightning over the Czech Republic Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Daniel Ščerba Explanation: What are those red filaments in the sky? They are a rarely seen form of [4]lightning confirmed only about 35 years ago: [5]red sprites. Research [6]has shown that following a powerful positive [7]cloud-to-ground lightning strike, [8]red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of [9]ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the [10]speed of light. They are [11]quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The [12]featured image was taken late last month from the [13]Jeseniky Mountains in northern [14]Moravia in the [15]Czech Republic. The distance to the [16]red [17]sprites is about 200 kilometers. [18]Red sprites take only a [19]fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when [20]powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side. 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References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2209/sprites_scerba_4240.jpg 3. https://www.facebook.com/daniel.scerba 4. https://www.lightningmaps.org/ 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_sprite 6. https://earthweb.ess.washington.edu/space/AtmosElec/spriteinfo.html 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120723.html 8. https://earthsky.org/earth/definition-what-are-lightning-sprites/ 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionized-air_glow 10. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/three-ways-to-travel-at-nearly-the-speed-of-light 11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATmpgZoMRM0 12. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10228360740152891&set=pcb.10228360752593202 13. https://youtu.be/qMcNVkA4DzE 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravia 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Republic 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210816.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210330.html 18. https://earthweb.ess.washington.edu/space/AtmosElec/spriteinfo.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210104.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170226.html 21. https://apod.me/ 22. https://mediabricks.bg/apod-bulgaria 23. http://www.apod.cat/ 24. http://www.bjp.org.cn/mryt/ 25. http://sprite.phys.ncku.edu.tw/astrolab/mirrors/apod/apod.html 26. http://www.apod.rs/Croatia.html 27. http://www.astro.cz/apod/ 28. http://www.apod.nl/ 29. https://www.skypix.org/top/EN/1/44/0/0.aspx 30. http://www.cidehom.com/apod.php 31. https://dpelletier.profweb.ca/index.html 32. http://www.starobserver.org/ 33. http://www.astronomia2009.org.il/info/apod/apod.htm 34. http://apod.infoastronomy.org/ 35. http://home.u05.itscom.net/apodjpn/apodj/apodj0.htm 36. http://wouldyoulike.org/apod/ 37. http://www.apod.rs/Montenegro.html 38. http://apod.pl/apod/ 39. http://www.astronet.ru/db/apod.html 40. http://www.apod.rs/ 41. http://apod.fmf.uni-lj.si/ 42. http://observatorio.info/ 43. https://apod.tw/ 44. https://www.uzaydanhaberler.com/category/gorsel/apod/ 45. http://astronomy.pp.ua/ 46. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220911.html 47. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 48. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 49. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 50. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 51. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 52. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 53. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 54. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 55. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220912 56. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220913.html 57. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 58. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 59. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 60. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 61. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 62. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 63. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 64. https://www.nasa.gov/ 65. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 66. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 67. http://www.mtu.edu/