In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
The average length of a lightning bolt is about 2-3 miles. The charge carried down this small channel is so intense that the temperature of the lightning reaches 30,000 °C - that's five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
Feature. Lightning is four times hotter than the sun.
Yep, the answer is a bolt of lightning, which can reach temperatures of roughly 30,000 kelvins (53,540 degrees Fahrenheit). The sun, on the other hand, is eclipsed in this case - its surface temperature is just 6,000 kelvins (10,340 degrees Fahrenheit).
The color of the bolt depends on how hot it is; the hotter the lightning, the closer the color will be to the end of the spectrum. The color spectrum in this case start with infared which is red and the coolest up to ultraviolet which appears violet and is the hottest.
First reported in 1994, dark lightning is estimated to flash around the world about a thousand times each day. But scientists have only a hazy understanding of how it initiates. They generally agree dark lightning is sparked by the electric fields generated by thunderstorms and lightning bolts.
Perhaps the strangest colors reported are instances of pink or green lightning seen during snowstorms. The phenomenon, known as”thundersnow”, is rare. The unique sky color is caused as snowflakes refract and reflect the white bolt in a unique way.
The hottest thing in the Universe (Supernova)
Supernovas are the hottest thing in the Universe as they reach a million degrees Celsius. These explosive events occur when a star between 8 and 40 times more massive than our Sun reaches the end of its stellar lifecycle and explodes when its core collapses.
The Earth's Core
Right down in the centre of our Earth, at its core, temperatures reach 5,377 degrees Celsius.
Lightning can boil water. The reason why many objects explode when struck is that the water they contain vaporises.
The highest temperature ever reached under controlled conditions is an astonishing two billion degrees. It was created in the so-called Z-machine at the Sandia Laboratories, New Mexico, which uses incredibly high electric currents and magnetic fields to release radiation from atoms.
A typical lightning flash is about 300 million Volts and about 30,000 Amps. In comparison, household current is 120 Volts and 15 Amps.
In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
The most common color for lightning is white. This is also the hottest type of lightning and so the most dangerous. It is caused by a low concentration of moisture and a high level of dust in the air.
Up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe even more.
Most often we see white bolts of lightning but it can take on any of the colors in the rainbow ranging from red (in the infrared band) to violet (in the UV region). Depending on weather conditions you might see tinges of other colors at the edges.
Stellar black holes are very cold: they have a temperature of nearly absolute zero – which is zero Kelvin, or −273.15 degrees Celsius.
ASTM C1055 (Standard Guide for Heated System Surface Conditions that Produce Contact Burn Injuries) recommends that pipe surface temperatures remain at or below 140°F. The reason for this is that the average person can touch a 140°F surface for up to five seconds without sustaining irreversible burn damage.
It could be fatal. It is commonly held that the maximum temperature at which humans can survive is 108.14-degree Fahrenheit or 42.3-degree Celsius. A higher temperature may denature proteins and cause irreparable damage to brain.
The temperature in a supernova can reach 1,000,000,000 degrees Celsius. This high temperature can lead to the production of new elements which may appear in the new nebula that results after the supernova explosion.
One degree Kelvin translates to minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit or approximately minus 272 degrees Celsius. For comparison, the coldest recorded temperature on Earth is minus 128.6 degrees Fahrenheit in Vostok, Antarctica.
However, there is approximately only one dark lightning occurrence for every thousand visible flashes, and since pilots do their utmost to avoid thunderstorms, the risk of injury is quite limited. It remains unclear whether anyone has ever been hit by dark lightning.
Spider lightning refers to long, horizontally traveling flashes often seen on the underside of stratiform clouds. Spider lightning is often linked to +CG flashes.
What causes lightning to be colored rather than the usual white or blue? Lightning can appear to be many different colors depending on what the light travels through to get to your eyes. In snowstorms, where it is somewhat rare, pink and green are often described as colors of lightning.