Space Stations captures rare 'red sprites' emanating from clouds

A mounted camera on the orbiting International Space Station caught a rare glimpse of the other side of lighting.

All Earthlings know the bright white bolts that snap downwards from thunderstorms, but very few have witnessed the red flailing tendrils thrown upwards from the clouds into near space. The phenomenon wasn't discovered at all until the 1989, and remained poorly described until the mid 1990s.

That's partly because it takes a privileged vantage point and some exceptional equipment—like a $150 billion orbiting space station—to snap photos from above the upper atmosphere. Also because the red upward lightning burns for mere milliseconds.

For their elusiveness, experts dubbed the flashes "red sprites," after the tiny mythical spirit creatures rarely glimpsed by human eyes.

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