Sprite (lightning)

So, imagine you're outside on a warm summer night and suddenly you see a big flash of light in the sky that looks like a giant zigzag line. That's called lightning, and it happens when there are huge clouds in the sky and some of them carry static electricity.

Sometimes, when lightning happens, it can look a little different. Instead of a zigzag line, it can look like a ball of light that shoots out from the cloud towards the ground. That's what we call a sprite.

A sprite happens when the lightning heats up the air around it really quickly. This makes the air glow and create a big ball of light. Sprites usually only last for about a tenth of a second and they happen really high up in the air, so they're not always easy to see.

Scientists have been studying sprites for a long time because they're pretty rare and mysterious. But they're also really cool to look at!