[ad_1]
Producing content you read on this website takes a lot of time, effort, and hard work. If you value what we do here, please consider subscribing today.
Russian Astro and Geophysics satellite named after 18th-century scientists Mikhail Lomonosov, also known as MVL-300, has reportedly detected a previously unknown physical phenomenon in the Earth’s atmosphere.
This space-based observatory was launched in 2016 in an effort to study cosmic rays in the high-energy regime near the energetic spectrum cutoff, examine the characteristics of gamma-ray bursts in the universe, study Transient Luminous Effects in Earth’s atmosphere, and study Earth’s magnetosphere and near-Earth radiation environment using different detector systems.
According to Mikhail Panasyuk, the director of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Moscow State University who runs the Lomonosov Project, the observatory has encountered new physical phenomena.
On several occasions, Lomonosov has detected very powerful ‘explosions’ of light, Panasyuk said. However, everything underneath them was clear.
“There were no storms and no clouds underneath them,” Panasyuk said. “We do not yet know their physical nature.”
It is due to this absence of storms and clouds beneath why scientists believe this is previously undiscovered phenomena as other transient luminous events like sprites and elves all emanate from storms below.
Scientists have also eliminated ground explosions and missile/rocket launches as the cause of the phenomenon and are still analyzing the events.
It should be noted that this new physical phenomenon, or whatever these explosions of light are, was detected prior to June 30, 2018, when it was published that the satellite had suffered a malfunction in its data transmission system. As of 2019, the status of the satellite remains unknown.
Learn more about transient luminous events:
Featured image: Lomonosov satellite
Register/become a supporter
Your support is crucial for our survival. It makes this project fully self-sustainable and keeps us independent and focused on the content we love to create and share.
You’ll receive your ad-free account for 20x faster browsing experience, clean interface without any distractions, ability to post comments without prior editorial check, all our desktop and mobile applications (current and upcoming) ad-free and with the full set of features available, a direct line of communication and much more. See all options.
[ad_2]
Source link