Scientists launch a rocket directly into a thundercloud to "attract" lightning

A Reddit user with the nickname jraharris89 published a video depicting a lightning strike in a rocket. After that, the magic begins at all: the rocket trail flashes and looks like a laser beam. Within some five hours, the video scored over forty thousand likes.

Note that in the center of the plot is not a failed launch, but purposeful tests. This spacecraft was just supposed to be hit by a discharge of atmospheric electricity. With the help of such experiments, scientists conduct studies of thunder and lightning. To "attract" lightning, a piece of copper grounding wire is attached to the rockets.

According to the researchers, with the help of this wire, a conducting current channel is created, which "indicates" a predictable trajectory of lightning. Next, scientists send devices to the discharge with high accuracy and achieve repeatable experiments. By the way, thanks to one of them, it was possible to record thunderclaps through fifteen microphones and build a visualization of the acoustic signature of thunder.