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NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers photographed a rare atmospheric electrical event called a gigantic jet from the International Space Station on July 3, 2025. NASA says the event was first mistaken for a sprite before it was identified as a gigantic jet. The photograph is real; “once-in-a-lifetime” is headline language, not a scientific classification or a claim that no one has photographed one before.
What is a gigantic jet?
A gigantic jet is a brief electrical discharge that starts near the top of a thunderstorm and travels upward into the upper atmosphere. NASA describes these events as reaching from storm tops around 20 kilometers above Earth toward the upper atmosphere near 100 kilometers. The name can sound like a vehicle or a bolt headed into outer space, but it describes an atmospheric electrical phenomenon—not a jet aircraft, and not lightning leaving Earth entirely. NASA’s explanation of the event.
Gigantic jets belong to a family of short-lived upper-atmosphere light phenomena known as transient luminous events, or TLEs. They are uncommon and are often observed by chance: their brief duration, the need for an active storm and the difficulty of seeing them from a given location all make planned sightings challenging. NASA does not give a universal rate for how often they occur, so a precise “one in X storms” figure would be misleading.
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How it differs from a sprite
Sprites and gigantic jets are both TLEs, but they are not interchangeable names. A gigantic jet begins at or near a thunderstorm’s top and propagates upward. A sprite forms much higher, around 80 kilometers above Earth, and is commonly described as a brief reddish flash associated with a powerful lightning strike below it. Sprites can have column, carrot or jellyfish-like shapes; gigantic jets can appear as large branching or column-like structures.
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NASA says Ayers’ image was initially thought to show a sprite before researchers identified it as a gigantic jet. That initial uncertainty is understandable: these events are fleeting, can be difficult to classify from a single view, and their appearance and photographed colors vary. The Ayers image has been described as showing red, white and blue, so color alone is not a reliable way to distinguish one kind of TLE from another. NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day feature discusses the image and its visual context.
What can be seen in the photograph?
The central feature is the discharge rising above a storm. The wider scene also gives the event its orbital context: the night side of Earth, clouds, city lights, a faint greenish atmospheric glow and stars are visible. The image was taken from the ISS looking toward Earth, so it offers a view above the cloud tops that observers on the ground do not have.
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NASA’s image identifier is iss073e0281502. Its Scientific Visualization Studio page provides the original image and higher-resolution versions, along with the official caption. NASA later featured it in its space-station image gallery and as the September 9, 2025 Astronomy Picture of the Day.
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Gigantic jets are hard to observe systematically from the ground, where clouds, terrain and viewing angle can obscure the storm or the event. An astronaut above the clouds may capture the discharge and its relationship to the storm in one frame. NASA says observations like Ayers’ can help researchers study how gigantic jets form and what their characteristics are.
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That makes the photograph valuable documentation, not a complete scientific explanation. A single image does not establish the event’s underlying mechanism, set a record, or show that this particular jet affected satellites, communications or astronaut safety. TLEs are of interest because they involve electrical activity linking thunderstorms and the upper atmosphere, but broader research questions should not be confused with demonstrated effects from this one event.
Can the public help document these events?
NASA points people with photographs or videos of sprites, jets and other TLEs to Spritacular, a citizen-science project that collects public observations for research. Because sightings are unpredictable and spread across many locations, those submissions can add to the material available to scientists. Submission does not mean an image is automatically verified; observations need to be assessed.
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Finding the original NASA image
Use NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio entry for the image, caption and downloadable files. The photograph was captured on July 3, 2025; NASA’s explanatory article followed on August 12, 2025, and the APOD feature appeared on September 9, 2025. NASA spells the astronaut’s name Nichole Ayers.
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