Message to NASA

God's tryna tellya summin, guys

Well, it *looked* like it didn't hit the shuttle...

However, take a shuftie at this:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2009-02-22-lightning-cameras_N.htm.* There's more to this than meets the eye....

I remember at Nokia my manager told me the worst failure times for IC's etc. were in winter - Finnish dry air promoted static - but the failures were not immediate, but occured later under stress/testing. Days or weeks later.

Sorry, but I'd be worried. As I'm a Rocket Scientist (limited, admittedly: on Nov.5 - I know how to light the bugger) I feel our Nasa Overlords should heed my warning, unless they had very high speed cameras.

*Please, I beseech you, don't click on the "Interactive Graphic" link. The "Drag scrubber to animate" cost me yet another bloody keyboard...

Re: Well, it *looked* like it didn't hit the shuttle...

"Finnish dry air promoted static"

That's all well and good and everything, but lightning is not static... It moves fairly quickly (faster that the speed of sound, hence the sonic boom).

What you should be more worried about (and I'm sure NASA will check this) is the induced electric current from using the tower as a wire.

There's also the magnetic field from the high current going through said tower.

Sonic boom?

strictly speaking, the lightning itself doesn't cause a sonic boom - it's essentially mass and weightless afterall.

The sonic boom is caused by the expansion shockwaves of superheated gas (aka thunder) created as a gazillion volts pass through it.

@Andus

"Please, I beseech you, don't click on the "Interactive Graphic" link. The "Drag scrubber to animate" cost me yet another bloody keyboard..."

Shame for you - it worked great for me, and I didn't know that a bolt goes from the ground UP!

@alex 32

Actually, I meant the phrase "drag scrubber to animate" made me snort! "Scrubber in English is a 'loose woman' - ho, tart, whatever".

Yep 95% of lightning goes up. That's (IIRC) a negative strike. I seem to remember that a positive strike can happen*, which is a helluvalot more powerful. That'll certainly make your eyes water...

Happened to an American friend of mine years ago. He was walking in the Rockies - I think - and suddenly noticed the pebbles moving. Fortunately he knew what to do, and hit the deck. Struck a few metres away, nice crater.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning#Positive_lightning