lightning sprites

Humans are extremely limited in what we can see of our environment.  We cannot see the electromagnetic spectrum beyond our very narrow rainbow of colors.  We cannot see polarization of light.  We are also limited by the speed of our senses; we are no good at noticing changes that are either very fast or very slow.

Technology helps us out by enhancing our senses beyond these limitations.  For instance, high speed cameras let us see things that happen on very short timescales.  One photographer has captured some beautiful images of lightning sprites (which form high in the atmosphere far above typical weather) at 10,000 frames per second.  Pictured here is one sample of his work.  Don't miss his blog where he posts more images and video samples.



So very much happens in the universe.  We don't even notice the many interesting things that happen right on our own world.  Life is unfair that way.