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Blustery bolts.


Believe it or not, fiery-hot lightning has a chilly beginning. Scientists have found that clouds consisting of a mixture of tiny ice crystals and larger pellets of ice make the most lightning.

For three years, Walt Petersen and his team at the National Space Science and Technology Center in Alabama used information from a special satellite to study the action that takes place inside thunderclouds.

Thunderclouds contain millions of pieces of ice, all bumping Bumping can refer to:
  • Bump (union), a re-assignment of jobs on the basis of seniority in unionised organisations
  • Bump (Internet), a technique used on an internet forum to raise a topic thread's profile
  • Lock bumping, a method of lock picking
 into each other. These collisions knock negatively charged Adj. 1. negatively charged - having a negative charge; "electrons are negative"
electronegative, negative

charged - of a particle or body or system; having a net amount of positive or negative electric charge; "charged particles"; "a charged battery"
 particles <onlyinclude> This is a list of particles in particle physics, including currently known and hypothetical elementary particles, as well as the composite particles that can be built up from them. , called electrons, off tiny ice crystals. The tiny crystals, now positively charged Adj. 1. positively charged - having a positive charge; "protons are positive"
electropositive, positive

charged - of a particle or body or system; having a net amount of positive or negative electric charge; "charged particles"; "a charged battery"
, drift upward. Heavier chunks of ice become negatively charged and fall to the bottom of the cloud.

"Nature can't handle the differences between the two oppositely charged areas in the cloud Refers to the operation taking place within a network. See cloud. ," says Petersen. To balance the difference in charge, electrons flow very fast from the negative area of the cloud to the positive area in the form of lightning--ZAP!
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Article Details
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Title Annotation:EARTH/LIGHTNING
Author:Klein, Andrew
Publication:Science World
Date:Jan 15, 2007
Words:154
Previous Article:Smashing discovery.(PHYSICAL/PERIODIC TABLE)
Next Article:Sticky feet.(LIFE/ADAPTATIONS)



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