Lightning is truly one of God’s unique creations. It has for thousands of years marveled mankind with its power and showiness. The phenomenon of lightning has for years generated questions in the minds of scientists such as, “what causes it?” and “what controls it?” New ideas are now being put forth in order to explain one particular aspect in the pattern of lightning–the reason it zigs and zags.
A team of Russian and American researchers now feel that cosmic rays may be involved in the zigzag pattern of lightning. Cosmic rays are high energy protons and other particles that zing to Earth from all around the galaxy. These rays influence the molecules in our atmosphere as they hit them and pass on their energy. It may just be this input of energy and where it occurs that determines the path that lightning takes as it moves from the Earth to the clouds. To further explain, lightning is not one continuous stream of electrons but many short lengths joined together. Each cosmic ray comes from a different angle and direction and so each short section of lightning travels off in another path. This results in the pattern we see as we watch the lightning strike.
No matter what the source, this display in nature shows two things: (1) man’s ability to understand and explain even those events we can see is limited, and (2) along side the power that God has placed in his creation of the universe, man is very weak and pitiful. God is in control of all the forces around us and we need to give him the glory.
