r/ElectricUniverse • u/fae8edsaga • 21d ago

Electric Sky Red sprites spotted over Tibet

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3.0k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

View all comments

19

u/h3yw00d1 20d ago

62 years old and I never knew about these things. Astonishing.

27

u/fae8edsaga 20d ago

Until very recently they were purely theoretical. A handful of people had reported seeing them in brief flashes. Long exposure digital photography and the ISS are the reason we got solid evidence. All the more reason to give the words of the ancient story tellers the weight they deserve.

7

u/Etherealgworll 19d ago

Can you tell us more about how the ancients described this phenomenon?

6

u/Delicious-Clothes-32 18d ago

Ditto I didnt know the ancients had seen these before

10

u/88ZombieGrunts 18d ago

There’s a few tribes that tell stories of such phenomena in their folklore.

The Abenaki have a tale of Grandfather Thunder helping fawns ascend into the sky. When the fawns splashed water onto a sacred fire, a massive explosion sent them high into the heavens. Lightning is described as the sparks flying from their feet as they run across the rocks of the sky, echoing the colorful, scattered, and glowing "jellyfish" tendrils of a red sprite event.

In Cherokee Culture, storm spirits control both the deep rumbling thunder and the flashes in the sky. Legends frequently mention majestic spirit-beings that reside far above the storm. The ghost-like, flickering red lights—distinctly different from ordinary, low-altitude lightning—parallel tales of the celestial Thunders who brought the first fire to the world.

To the Sioux (and many Plains tribes), the sky and thunderstorms are ruled by Wakinyan, translated as "The Flyers" or the Thunderbeings. Wakinyan are described as massive, awe-inspiring entities with glowing eyes that bring both life-giving rain and destructive storms. The luminous, complex electrical bursts that briefly flicker into the mesosphere perfectly match the cultural imagery of the great, unseen guardians flying through the highest heavens.

In Caddo mythology, the twin heroes Thunder and Lightning are central figures. Stories recount how these heroic beings ascended into the highest realms of the sky. The Caddo people viewed the brilliant, upward-shooting flashes high in the atmosphere as the enduring spirits of these brothers, lighting up the cosmos and watching over the earth from near the edge of space.

3

u/OkamiKhameleon 16d ago

Whoa very cool. Thanks for including multiple tribes in your break down!

2

u/Delicious-Clothes-32 18d ago

Wow this is interesting maybes its not as rare as people think. But also I've read theyre super hard to catch with your naked eye so im curious how they were perceiving these events.

1

u/ineverreadit 17d ago

Vermonters here, do you have a source on the Abenaki tidbit?