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We don't even have an accurate mathematical description of how a single water molecule works.
We have so much scientific work to do.
What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#22Tl;dr lightings may be caused by electrons/positrons from outer space hitting a cloud and initiating an "avalanche" of electrons.
There’s a video of an EF5 tornado from the last 24-48 hours that shows continuous lightning in the background.
There hasn’t been an increase in background cosmic rays, so likely the mechanism for lightning generation is likely a continuum in different scenarios. Cosmic rays are one, but not all.
Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#23So, nothing new? The cosmic ray hypothesis has been dominant for a few years now. This magazine…
> So, nothing new? > The cosmic ray hypothesis has been dominant for a few years now. > This magazine… I think saying "This magazine…" as if the flaws of Quanta are well understood and agreed may need additional elaboration. If you mean that experts have known this—well, the role of Quanta is to disseminate and explain expert research to scientifically literate non-experts; it is not meant to be distributing the late…
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Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#24If that new theory turns out to be somewhat right, there'll be something humbling about ancient greeks stories of Zeus sending Hephaestus bolts from ~'heaven/the cosmos' being closer to it than our modern explanations all along
Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#25That 7 second video of a small rocket shot into a cloud to induce a lightning strike (about half way down the article) is incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJIiX9_c_M Any ideas why the lightning strike appears mostly green (and momentarily purple and orange)?
The surrounding air becomes ionized. Since Earth’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, and ionized nitrogen often emits a purple glow.
Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#26[flagged]
We don’t even understand friction. Which is one source of static charges, which we thus don’t understand well either. And static charges that somehow accumulate in the clouds cause lightning, which… I think you get the point.
Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#27[flagged]
Neutrons, neutrinos, photons, Z bosons and Higgs bosons are all neutral particles and carry no charge.
Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#28There's a Feynman lecture abput electricity in the atmosphere that is interesting to read alongside this article:
Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#29Tl;dr lightings may be caused by electrons/positrons from outer space hitting a cloud and initiating an "avalanche" of electrons.
Cosmic rays are mostly protons, not electrons or positrons. You're mixing up to separate theories in the article.
As others have mentioned you are correct. But Earth's atmosphere has plenty of all forms of matter. A proton can interact with mostly anything and accelerate it. So you can find high energy everything in low earth orbit.
Re: What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting
#30[flagged]
Never mind this kind of lightning, it gets really interesting when we start to look at ball lightning, which is very real but rarely sighted.
As long as you reject the hypothesis of "ionized matter" ball lightning is completely unexplainable. If you accept that ionized matter is hot and gives off plenty of EM radiation, it's pretty simple.