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Popular Science

NASA’s U-2 spy plane found gamma rays in 90% of lightning storms

Popular Science
Summary
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80% Informative

Gamma radiation is a common byproduct of thunderstorms that produce gamma rays, antimatter, and other radiation particles.

Experts accidentally detected gamma rays in thunderstorms in the 1990s .

A retrofit of an old U-2 spy plane by NASA allowed researchers to study gamma rays.

The ER-2 High-Altitude Airborne Science Aircraft is perfect for speeding across vast distances to observe multiple thunderstorms.