News Earth

Muons reveal the whopping voltages inside a thunderstorm

Physicists used subatomic particles to probe the inner workings of a cloud

thunderstorm

STORM SURGE  Subatomic particles called muons can expose a thunderstorm (like this one) storing up a huge electric potential — more than a billion volts.

Ian Froome/Unsplash

By Emily Conover

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Earth

  1. Getz Ice Shelf
    Climate

    Global warming may lead to practically irreversible Antarctic melting

    By Carolyn Gramling
  2. San Francisco Bay bridge smoky skyline
    Environment

    What we know and don’t know about wildfire smoke’s health risks

    By Aimee Cunningham
  3. ocean waves
    Oceans

    Underwater earthquakes’ sound waves reveal changes in ocean warming

    By Carolyn Gramling
  4. Hope Diamond
    Earth

    Earth’s rarest diamonds form from primordial carbon in the mantle

    By Carolyn Gramling
  5. tobacco hawkmoth drinking from a plant
    Environment

    This moth may outsmart smog by learning to like pollution-altered aromas

    By Carmen Drahl
  6. New Zealand wine grape field
    Agriculture

    How does a crop’s environment shape a food’s smell and taste?

    By Carolyn Beans
  7. Nathaniel B. Palmer research ship in West Antarctica
    Climate

    New maps show how warm water may reach Thwaites Glacier’s icy underbelly

    By Carolyn Gramling
  8. Bering Sea ice
    Climate

    Bering Sea winter ice shrank to its lowest level in 5,500 years in 2018

    By Carolyn Gramling

From the Nature Index

Paid Content