That fiery volcano putting up a plume of smoke — what’s going on? Well, electrons are being ripped from here and added there: chemical reactions. Reactions that give off heat (molecular agitation) and light (escaping photons) as electrons find a lower energy state.
That “cold” bolt of lightning — what’s going on? Electrons (the particles of charge) ripping through space and giving off photons — “particles” of light (or are they waves?).
Damn. What a wild planet this is.
By the way. To add a god to the whole affair would be akin to affixing a smiley face sticker to the above image. An improvement? Get real.
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[image thanks to NASA]
April 20th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
A fascinating and awesome photo.