When Chinese astrophotographer Shengyu Li was organising his digital camera and tripod to seize star trails, he unexpectedly noticed one thing else fully: a mysterious blue mild emanating from an avalanche.
Li was on the foot of Mount Xiannairi in Sichuan on October 27 planning to seize a timelapse of the celebrities above when an avalanche occurred, triggering the blue lights to flash on the mountain.
“We haven’t discovered any beforehand documented instances of such an occasion, making this discovery each thrilling and intriguing for us,” Li tells HouseWeather.com. “Our preliminary speculation is that the luminescence could end result from friction-induced lighting in the course of the fragmentation of ice.”
The avalanche was attributable to an icy serac breaking free from a dangling glacier which fragmented because it tumbled down the mountain. Carson Reid, a mountaineer, tells HouseWeather.com that the blue lights seem when there’s a important “smash level”.
Triboluminescence
In a prolonged put up on the social media platform X, a science communicator referred to as Erica speculated that the blue lights have been attributable to a pure phenomenon generally known as triboluminescence.
On Oct. 27, Chinese astrophotographer Shengyu Li captured uncommon blue flashes throughout an avalanche on Mount Xiannairi, probably attributable to “triboluminescence”, mild generated by friction throughout ice fragmentation.
Triboluminescence is a phenomenon the place mild is emitted when… pic.twitter.com/gTyerkvBvs
— Erika (@ExploreCosmos_) November 25, 2024
“Triboluminescence is a phenomenon the place mild is emitted when sure supplies are fractured, scratched, or rubbed,” explains Erica.
“It happens as a result of breaking of chemical bonds or the sudden separation of surfaces, which might create electrical fees. These fees trigger ionization of the encompassing air or excitation of the fabric itself, resulting in seen mild emission.”
For an easier clarification, HouseWeather.com quotes physicist Richard Feynman who defined that “while you take a lump of sugar and crush it with a pair of pliers at midnight, you may see a bluish flash. Some different crystals try this too. Nobody is aware of why.”
The Smarter Every Day YouTube channel demonstrated triboluminescence by smashing Life Savers candies with a hammer and filming it in tremendous gradual movement, see above.
Image credit: Photographs by Shengyu Li.
