“We’re trying to assess whether those phenomena pose any risks to safety and we’re doing it using science,” Evans added. “We’ve tasked (the team) with helping NASA produce a roadmap, a roadmap that doesn’t necessarily look back at previous grainy footage, sort of acknowledges that many UAPs historically we’ll never be able to get to the bottom because the data are of such poor quality,” Evans said on Wednesday. “Unidentified anomalous phenomena has truly captured the attention of the public, of the scientific community and nowadays, the US government as well, and we at NASA strongly believe that it’s our responsibility all working together to investigate these with the scientific scrutiny that NASA is well known for,” said Dan Evans, assistant deputy associate administrator for research, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. This, followed by a rapid cooling after the bolt passes, creates intense sound waves that we call thunder.A team of 16 experts and scientists assembled by NASA aims to publish its first report on unidentified anomalous phenomena, also known as unidentified flying objects, or UFOS, by midsummer. Lightning bolts are so hot at the core rapidly that they heat the air as they pass through it. The violent process continues until the positive and negative difference is so great that a conductive path is formed, creating lightning, which is the high-voltage, high current surge of electrons. The newly-knocked off electrons gather at the lower portion of the cloud (giving a negative charge) and the rising moisture carries a positive charge to the top of the cloud. While evaporation and condensation continues, turbulence is created and droplets of moisture collide with one another, knocking off electrons and creating charge separation. Some of the rapidly rising moisture freezes in the upper cloud regions. This is because moisture and rapidly rising warm air play an important role in forming these storms: High humidity and warm temperatures result in large amounts of warm, moist air air rising into the atmosphere.Īs the moisture rises, condensation occurs and water droplets form as they reach the colder temperatures of the high altitudes.

Thunderstorms - characterized by rain showers, thunder, and lightning - can occur year-round, according to NOAA, but they are much more prevalent and generally more severe in the warmer months of summer. For example, it’s a great time to see the Big Dipper in the summer. Since the planet completes a circle every year, patterns and constellations re-emerge on schedule every season. Gradually, the stars that were low over the western horizon during the early evening hours eventually disappear entirely from our view over a few weeks and their place is taken up stars that earlier were higher in the sky at sundown.

The change in the night sky is subtle from night to night, But, as the season progresses, reports, a given star sets about 4 minutes earlier each night, so over a month, that means it sets two hours earlier. Of course, this change in which stars we see doesn’t happen all at once. In other words, in the summer, we can see the stars that during the winter were in our daytime sky, and thus were invisible to us. What this means is that most of the star patterns, or constellations, that we see on a summer night are different from those that we see in the winter, according to. And, as climate change continues to rise temperatures, scientists predict there will be more frequent and severe heat waves in summer.Īs the earth orbits the sun, the part of the night sky that is in our view changes. Heatwaves are most common in summer when high pressure systems develop across an area, trapping in the heat. This effect is amplified by the longer summer days. In the summer, the sun’s rays hit the Earth at a steep angle, the light doesn’t spread out as much, and so any one spot receives more energy from the sun, increasing temperatures. So, throughout the year as the earth rotates around the sun, this axial tilt causes the planet’s northern and southern hemisphere to bask in different levels of sunlight, giving rise to the seasons. Our planet doesn’t sit perfectly straight as it spins - instead, it has a slight lean of approximately 23.5 degrees with respect to the sun as it rotates, called the axial tilt. This rise in temperatures is caused by the tilt of the Earth’s axis. Temperatures get warmer - and heatwaves are more common.

Natural phenomena