Reuters reports that astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia, while videotaping thunderstorms, captured a never-before-seen red glowing arc of light paralleling the curve of the Earth. “Two nights ago over Africa was an extraordinary image. We saw a huge horizontal line of air glow which has been brightened by lightning below it which extended to several hundred miles horizontally and we feel it may be something new,” said Dr. Yoav Yair, project coordinator for Israeli experiments aboard the Columbia in its current mission. Over the next few weeks, analysis will seek to confirm scientists’ initial impression that the glow is neither a sprite nor an elf, two other electrical phenomena associated with thunderstorms.