What is a heat lightning?

Heat lighting is the flashes of light produced by distant electrical storms.  The flashes of lightning occur too far away for thunder to be heard.

Sometimes, on warm summer evenings, we see so-called “heat lightning”—silent flashes of light in the distant sky.  Heat lightning is really light from a flash of chain lightning that takes place beyond the horizon.  Chain, or forked, lightning is the lightning you see zig-zagging across the sky in any thunderstorm.

We just don’t hear heat lightning’s thunder because we are too far away.  We don’t see the lightning either.  We see its light reflected from high clouds.  Lightning is a big electric spark that spears its way across the sky.  During a thunderstorm, electrical charges are built up in the clouds.  If the charges become great enough, a flash of lightning occurs.

As the lightning flashes across the sky, it quickly heats the air in its path.  The heated air expands (spreads out) rapidly and sets a great sound wave in motion which we hear a few moments later as thunder.

What is a shooting star?

Shooting stars are tiny meteors that glow white hot when they hurtle from out of space into the earth’s atmosphere. 

If you look up at the sky long enough on a dark, clear night, you may see the fiery streak of a “shooting star” flash across the sky. 

Shooting Star

While “shooting star” may be a pretty name, it is not accurate, for real stars are great glowing balls of gases far out in space.

The “shooting stars” that streaks across the sky are bits of rock and metal called meteors.  Many billions of meteors zip around through space.

Many of them come so close that they are captured by earth’s gravity, and are pulled toward earth.  As the speeding meteors hurtle into the earth’s atmosphere, friction with the air causes them to glow white hot.  Then we see them as blazing trails of lights.

Meteors rarely blaze for more than a few seconds.  Most of those we see were originally no bigger than a grain of rice.  They usually burn up before they reach the ground.

Meteors that survive their fall and land on earth are called meteorites.-Dick Rogers

Let Your Little Light Shine (1 of 2)

Good morning everyone. I use to remember when I was still small, I love to play with my friends and we love to light a candle. We want to light it so that we will have a good light so that we can play well.

“One candle lights one candle, two candles light four . . . And where they shine, there is no darkness anymore.”

When we were little children, we would wish upon the first star we see at dust. We couldn’t help but get awed as tiny flickers in the infinite sky started to inhabit the cloudless dark space above us. As we grew older, we learned more about the celestial bodies residing in the universe—the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and the stars—yet the mysteries of the cosmos continue to baffle us ever to this day.

Even the experts called cosmologists are puzzled not only by the hugeness of the universe but also by the information that may just be lurking in the dark, or even lighted, areas of the immense outer space.

For many years, scientists believe that after the Big Bang, the universe will collapse with a “big crunch” due to the pull of gravity. It’s like pulling a rubber band in all directions, and the rubber band snaps back when the limit has been reached.

Recent scientific fingers, however, suggest that contrary to earlier belief—that the expansion of the universe slows down before it finally collapses—the universe is in fact expanding at a faster rate. In their quest for answers, scientists focused their attention to the stars and their environs.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Good morning friends. I just like to share you something. When I was in the house of my niece, her daughter is close to me. When ever I go there, she stays with me and talk a lot of things. She is only 9 years old now. She gave me a poem which she said she read in the book. The thought of sharing me something means to me. Somewhat she knows how to face the future in a positive way. The title of the poem is ..”All Things Bright and Beautiful”. Let me share you the poem she gave me.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He also made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning
That brightens up the sky

The cold wind in the winter
The pleasant summer sun
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them for everyone.

The tall trees in the greenwood
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water
We gather everyday.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all thins well.