Framing thunder: Scientists capture first ever image of boisterous bang radiating from a lightning strike

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Lightning, usually brings out scary images within the mind, thoughts of nature's wrath being vented on the Earth. At the same time, lightning has been the object of the photographer's affection, the beauty of its arc seducing their lusty lenses to capture the detail of the phenomenon.

Now, to take matters further, scientists have captured a picture of the sound that goes along with it, in what is touted as the first ever detailed image of thunder.

The image was captured by sending a copper wire into a cloud to make it send down thunder and lightning by Maher Dayeh, a heliophysicist from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

The event was recorded with 15 microphones that were laid out 95 meters from the lightning, which together helped capture the sound waves.

The images, which are made up of acoustic maps, are captured using a special equipment that can visualize the way that the sound moves in space.

Through the capturing of sound, scientists hope to gain a better understanding of the physics behind the natural strike.

Lightning is created by electrical charges move either within a cloud or between the cloud and the ground. It causes sudden increase in pressure and temperature which produces sudden expansion of the surrounding air, which in turn results in a sonic shock wave called thunder.

Video of starting lightning with rockets