GeekwithEnvy

Science

A Quick Look at How Lightning Works and a Cool Video

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It’s that time of year again in most the United States when we start to see warming temperatures and that means a lots of thunderstorms. We see the flash and then hear the rumble of thunder as we witness the power of our planet’s weather system.

Although many of us have experienced a thunderstorm, few truly understand what’s going on out there when lightning strikes. It’s quite clear why it would be difficult to determine exactly what’s going on when a thunderstorm produces lightning, after all, lightning happens in a split second. Thankfully, there are lots of people out there studying storms and using high speed cameras to slow everything down, this helps us get a clearer picture of what’s happening. One of those people is Tom A. Warner, a photographer who has captured some amazing footage of lightning, among many other things.

Lightning occurs when a storm becomes electrified. As the storm moves over an area, it’s negative charge causes the ground around it go become positively charged. This build up and difference in electrical charge is why lightning occurs. What’s even more interesting is that the lighting doesn’t just come lying out of the cloud, at least not initially. A Stepped Leader (-) begins to make it’s way down from the cloud as streamers (+) move upward from the ground. When the streamer meets the step leader then connection is complete and we see the resulting discharge as lightning. In the video above you can clearly see the Stepped Leader searching for the best path for the lightning to take.

Anything can produce a streamer towards a storm cloud, it’s usually a tall object but even you could be producing one. What’s worse is you could become part of the circuit and bam, you’ve been hit by lightning. That’s why it’s important to follow safety guidelines if your caught in a storm

Lightning Animation B
Stepped Leader Animation (Credit: NOAA)
Lightning Animation A
Streamer Animation (Credit: NOAA)

 

 

 

Catch The Lyrid Meteor Shower This Weekend

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lyridsFromSpace
The Lyrid Meteor Shower as seen from the International Space Station (Source:NASA)

Every year the Earth passes through an area of debris in space that is left behind from Comet Thatcher. When we pass through this area of dust, we on the Earth’s surface get to see quite a show.

This meteor shower is known as the Lyrid meteor shower and the radiant of the shower (where the shower appears to originate) is near the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, Vega. The shower will be at it’s peek this weekend on April 21 and 22 (Sunday night and early Monday morning).

Unfortunately, many of us will have difficulty observing this event as the Moon will be very bright, almost full. No need to get discouraged though as you should still be able to see many of them anyway, especially farther away from sources of light pollution like bigger cities. As you watch space debris streak across the sky, think about how they are moving at over 100,000 mph or 160,934 km/h, it’s pretty cool stuff.

How To Make Homemade Ninja Turtle Ooze

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Who wouldn’t want to have a little glowing ooze around the house? I came across this awesome video that shows how you can make your own Ninja Turtle glowing ooze.

Interesting Fact:
Did you know that the UK version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was named Teenage Mutant “Hero” Turtles? The name was altered due to strict guidelines that were in place that deemed the word “ninja” to be too violent.

Meteor Lights Up East Coast

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East Coast Meteor Sighting Report Map (Source: Mike Hankey/American Meteor Society )
East Coast Meteor Sighting Report Map (Source: Mike Hankey/American Meteor Society )

Yet another ancient space rock has decided to visit Earth, this time in a highly populated area. Hundreds of reports came in form cities all along the East Coast of the U.S as a meteor approximately  3 feet (0.9 meters), according to NASA, came blazing through the sky.

Although it may seem like we have had more meteor activity than usual, it’s actually quite common for meteors to hit the Earth. Meteors of this size hit the Earth about every 3 days but most of the time they occur in areas that are relatively unpopulated and sometimes they occur during hours at which most people aren’t out and about.

The reality is that we are under a constant bombardment from space debris, some of it man-made. Our atmosphere causes most of it to burn up well before it even gets close to the surface of Earth. It’s nice to get a show every once and a while, it always sparks up curiosity about what’s going on out there, which is something we should spend a lot more time researching.

A Quick Guide to Understanding the Equinox

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NorthHemiSeasons

The Earth is tilted in relation to the sun. Earth’s axial tilt to orbit is 23.44°. On March 20th 2013, this marked the Spring Equinox for the northern hemisphere. The Fall Equinox is in September and vice versa for the southern hemisphere. The Equinox is the point at which the Earth is neither leaning towards or away from the sun. The sunlight that hits the Earth is evenly distributed across the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere. From space, the terminator (where night meets day on the Earth’s surface) appears to be perfectly straight from north to south.

After the equinox, the sunlight begins to either become more direct or less direct depending on which hemisphere you live in. The Solstice is the point at which the sun appears at either it’s highest or lowest point in the sky or when the Earth is tilted all the way towards or away from the sun. These are known as the summer and winter solstices.

Interestingly, the orientation of the Earth’s axis actually changes very slowly before making a complete circle every 25,800 years.

The illustration above shows how the tilt of the Earth and it’s location in orbit around the sun, change how light falls on the Earth’s surface. For a really cool view of the Earth undergoing seasonal changes in sunlight, you can view this NASA animation made from images from a geosynchronous satellite above Earth.