American astronaut Reid Wiseman is currently orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station, and has been sending a steady stream of fascinating photos and videos of his home planet.
In this Vine, he captured hypnotic lightning flashes from within a thunderstorm above Houston, Texas.
The more that scientists study about lightning, the more that they are captivated by its mysteries. For example, there are types of lightning (not seen here) that shoot upward from massive thunderstorms into the Earth's outer atmosphere. Known as "sprites," "blue jets" and "elves," the function of such phenomena are not entirely clear.
You can track more ordinary cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in near-real time via this website.
Types of lightning throughout Earth's atmosphere.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons