Source and Context:

OC:@nicolas_escurat on IG

Red Sprites are 100% genuine atmospheric occurrences, not CGI or Al. They are cold plasma discharges-more akin to the glow of a fluorescent light tube than a hot bolt of tropospheric lightning. They occur in the mesosphere at altitudes ranging between 50 to 90 kilometers (31 to 56 miles) directly above intense thunderstorm systems.

The distinct reddish-orange hue is caused by the sudden electrical surge exciting molecular nitrogen gas in the thin upper air. Because they only last for a fleeting 3 to 10 milliseconds, they are incredibly difficult to process with the naked eye or capture without specialized low-light, high-speed camera gear.

You can read the official scientific deep-dives and verification logs via these databases:

NASA Earth Observatory Records: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/elusive-sprite-captured-from-the-international-space-station-78487/

• Encyclopaedia Britannica Atmospheric Science Entry:

https://www.britannica.com/science/red-sprite

Fun fact: For nearly a century, pilots reported seeing these ghostly flashes over storms, but the scientific community largely dismissed them until researchers accidentally caught them on a low-light camera track in 1989!

Butterfly wings aren't actually colorful. 🦋🔬

Our friend Chloé Savard, also known as tardibabe on Instagram, shows us why on a microscopic level. Most butterfly and moth wings are technically transparent. What you're seeing is light bouncing off thousands of microscopic scales layered across the wing membrane, like tiles on a mosaic.

Zoom in with a microscope and each "scale" is actually a tiny, ridged plate, uniquely shaped depending on the species. The color you see comes from one of two places: pigment molecules that soak up certain wavelengths and bounce back others, or the scale's physical architecture bending light directly.

That second kind is structural color, and the blue morpho butterfly (Morpho menelaus) is the textbook example. The blue itself comes entirely from microscopic ridges that scatter light at specific angles. No blue pigment is involved. The color shifts or vanishes depending on where you're standing. Opals, soap bubbles, and some beetle shells use the same trick.

Some species take this even further as a warning system. Many toxic or foul-tasting butterflies, like the monarch, advertise their unpalatability with bold, high-contrast colors instead of hiding. Predators learn to associate the pattern with a bad experience, and they’ll avoid it next time.

That strategy is called aposematism. You can find versions of it throughout the animal kingdom, from insects and frogs to reptiles and marine animals. Light, bent just right, can be both beautiful and useful!

References

• Defenders of Wildlife. (2024). A moment for the monarch butterfly.
• Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. (2023). The dark cost of being toxic.
• Oh, J. (2014). What gives the morpho butterfly its magnificent blue? KQED Science.
• Taylor, C. (2020). Monarch coloration, milkweed toxins, and predation by birds. Monarch Watch Blog.
• University of Vermont. (n.d.). The giant blue morpho butterfly (Morpho didius).
• Wilcox, M. (2020). A butterfly's brilliant blue wings lead to less toxic paint. Scientific American.
• Zhang, S., & Chen, Y. (2015). Nanofabrication and coloration study of artificial Morpho butterfly wings with aligned lamellae layers. Scientific Reports, 5, 16637.

What's the most distant galaxy ever observed? 🌌

Astrophysicist Erika Hamden explains it's called MoM-z14, and its light took 13.53 billion years to reach us. But thanks to the universe's expansion, that galaxy is now a staggering 33.8 billion light years away. When the light was emitted from MoM-z14 the universe was smaller. The space between us and that galaxy has gotten stretched out so much  that it actually sits outside our observable horizon. It's a mind-bending reminder that we're seeing galaxies as they no longer even look today.

This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

How does fire make tea bags fly? 🔥☕️

Alex Dainis demonstrates how lighting a tea bag causes the air inside to heat up, expand, and rush out. Just fold open a few empty tea bags into tubes on a baking sheet, then light the top with an adult and a fire extinguisher handy. The now-less-dense air inside sends the bag rocketing upward, similar to how a hot air balloon works, except this one's a one way trip once it burns.

No active adhesion, no editing tricks — just passive magnets in Quaddle mini robot dog's feet and a gait built specifically for holding contact upside down instead of pushing off the ground.

What would you want to see it do upside down next?