Comment by irjustin 2 days ago
This isn't lightning like we think on earth. It's only a few centimeters long which is why it's never been detected before except by microphone[0].
[0] https://www.kpbs.org/news/science-technology/2025/11/26/at-l...
Lightning is static electricity that builds in an atmosphere.
And a mountain is a bump on the ground. It does feel like "lightning" comes with context beyond how the charge was formed, even if it could be technically correct to say that's all it is. Of course almost nobody knows what triboelectric discharge is either, but sticking to "static electricity" fits well between the two.
Wouldn't it be static electricity in that case and not lightning? Not sure if this is just a technical definition thing I'm missing or if lightning just makes a cooler sounding headline.