Unbelievable Phenomenon: Gigantic Jets and ‘Red Goblins’ Illuminate Puerto Rico’s Skies

Recently, the skies over Puerto Rico were lit up by a rare and impressive phenomenon: “gigantic jets”. These electrical discharges, which look like “red goblins”, are even more powerful and extend to the atmosphere higher, instead of descending towards the alone.

About the “red elves”:

• Officially known as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), “red elves” are rarely visible from the surface;
• Like traditional lightning, TLEs result from the accumulation of electrical charge within clouds;
• With them, however, the distribution occurs in the mesosphere Terraup to 80 km above the surface;
• The lush red color forms when the charge meets nitrogen in the planet’s atmosphere.

Cameras capture giant jets and red elves in the sky

In the early hours of August 4, Sunday, during a series of storms, cameras from the Caribbean Astronomical Society captured images of this natural scene. While reviewing the meteor records, astronomers realized that they had recorded at least three large jets, as well as a few red goblins.

According to the entity, the images show that these electrical discharges lasted longer than usual, which may have allowed some people to see them with the naked eye. After the images were published on the Facebookseveral people confirmed that they saw the phenomenon.

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Gigantic jets are the rarest form of electronichappens about a thousand times a year. They are 10 to 50 times more intense than normal lightning and last less than a second.

These jets are often associated with thunderstorms and appear high above the clouds, at an altitude between 50 and 85 kilometers in the mesosphere. The light emitted by them is red, due to a reaction with nitrogen present in this layer of the atmosphere.

The giant jets were only captured in images for the first time in 1989, although there were reports of observers seeing strange red flashes during thunderstorms. The true cause of these phenomena is not yet fully understood, but, as the NASA suggests, it may be related to an imbalance between different layers of the atmosphere, similar to what happens with traditional lightning.