9. The Existence of Dark Lightning
Although visible lightning grabs our attention with its brilliant flashes, scientists have found a hidden counterpart called “dark lightning,” in which case strong gamma ray bursts are emitted invisible to the human eye but detectable with specialised tools.
Though it doesn’t generate visible light, dark lightning strikes the same areas of thunderstorms as normal lightning. Rather, it produces a transient but strong gamma ray surge. Far more strong than medical X-rays and equivalent to the radiation generated in nuclear processes, these emissions can reach energy of up to 100 million electron volts.
Our knowledge of thunderstorms and atmospheric physics depends much on the finding of dark lightning. Given these high-energy emissions could provide a radiation risk to planes travelling through storms, it may help explain some oddities observed in storm behaviour and could maybe affect air travel safety.
Fascinatingly, dark lightning may also set off regular lightning strikes. Acting as a sort of “spark plug,” the high-energy electrons generated during dark lightning episodes may aid start the development of visible lightning bolts.