NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured this strange photo while aboard the International Space Station. While they look like a fleet of alien spacecraft above Earth, they're actually "red sprites."
These rare flashes of light are a kind of Transient Luminous Event (TLE) that appear high above the clouds in the mesosphere, the third highest layer of Earth's atmosphere. The energy bursts "appear above storms as a result of lightning activity occurring in and below storms," NASA explains.
"While space station crew hunt for TLEs from space, you can help right here on Earth: send your photographs of sprites and other TLEs to NASA's citizen science project, Spritacular, to contribute to a crowdsourced database that professional scientists can use for research."
Previously:
• NASA finds more evidence of Jovian sprites
• Rare red sprites dancing in the skies, above thunderstorms
