Messages about mysterious flares in the Earth's atmosphere, which were detected by the device on the Russian satellite "Lomonosov", attract the attention of fans of Internet sensations from the world of science and technology.
Sources, referring to the statements of authoritative scientists, report the registration of a light "explosion" of enormous power. It is not just anyone who talks about this, but Mikhail Panasyuk, director of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at Moscow State University. The sensationalism of the message is reinforced by his statement about new physical phenomena of unknown physical nature.
Flares of enormous power in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum were recorded by a telescope installed on the Lomonosov satellite. The satellite orbits the Earth at an altitude of 500 km; that is, in the upper layers of the thermosphere.
Reports of outbreaks of unknown nature, which appeared almost simultaneously in different media, contain some details that do not fully agree with each other and make one skeptical about this "sensation".
Simultaneously with the news of "light flashes", there were reports of a breakdown in the satellite equipment. Internet sources clarify that the breakdown occurred in 2018 immediately after the registration of the aforementioned "light flashes". Or maybe these "flashes" are harbingers of equipment breakdown?
Mikhail Panasyuk says that a light explosion of huge power was registered at an altitude of several tens of kilometers.
This means that the “explosion” took place in the lower layers of the thermosphere or in the mesosphere. This is significantly lower than the flight path of a satellite flying practically in close space.
This also means that the ultraviolet telescope that registered "light flashes" observed them through the dense layers of the atmosphere, which contradicts the theoretical foundations of ultraviolet spectroscopy. It is known that an ultraviolet telescope can register ultraviolet radiation only if the dense layers of the atmosphere do not interfere with the observation. In other words, an ultraviolet telescope should look into space, not into the depths of the atmosphere below.
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In one of the publications devoted to this topic, it is already directly mentioned about the "light flashes" recorded by the satellite without mentioning belonging to the ultraviolet range of the spectrum. Probably, the authors of the publication did not notice such a "trifle" at all.
It is possible that these flashes were sprites or elves - high-altitude discharges in the atmosphere, having an unusual shape and size. These discharges are indeed light. They are in the visible range of the spectrum at a considerable height, about 80-100 km. That is, where thunderstorms and ordinary lightning cannot occur.
True, according to Mikhail Panasyuk, sprites and elves are "bursts of ultraviolet radiation," and the discoverer of these special lightning, John Randolph Winkler, in 1989 registered sprites on a highly sensitive camera operating in the visible range of the spectrum. Who, in this case, can we believe - Mikhail Panasyuk or John Winkler?
By the way, Mikhail Panasyuk claims that no thunderstorms were registered under the notorious powerful outbreaks.
What, then, did the university satellite's ultraviolet telescope discover? There is no answer now.