The photographs were taken from the International Space Station (ISS) — the first in December 2013, the second in January 2011 — and are being shared with the world to bring attention to some new lightning-specific hardware that NASA just installed on the ISS.
If you are a Nikon D3 user or a general lover of photography, this little combination of photos will get your gears going. These lightning strikes now have a printed status of being probably the coolest thing imaginable.