NASA Scientists Baffled By Color Lights Shooting Into Space

A mysterious weather phenomenon called blue jets and red sprites has baffled scientists for years, and NASA still has no explanation for what appear to be lighting bolts that shoot up toward space rather than down to the ground.

European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen captured the flashes of light on video in 2015 while he was on the International Space Station. He talked about witnessing the upward and colorful flashes of lighting during the presentation above.

"It is not every day that you get to capture a new weather phenomenon on film, so I am very pleased with the result — but even more so that researchers will be able to investigate these intriguing thunderstorms in more detail soon," Mogensen said, reports The Daily Caller.

The flashes of light can be more than a half mile wide and generally happen 11 or 12 miles above the Earth's surface.

The Daily Caller notes that because the space station is lower in orbit than most other satellites, it offers an ideal viewing post.

NASA posted a black-and-white photo of what it said were blue jets rising out of a thunderstorm on its website back in 1995.

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