> In terms of temperature, which of the following is hottest?And the answer: lightning. Photo credit: Thomas Bresson, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAccording to NASA,lightning is four times hotter than the surface of the sun. The air around astroke of lightning can peak at 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while the surface ofthe sun is around 11,000 degrees. Meanwhile, magma can reach temperatures near2,100 degrees.Earth’s air is a very poor conductor of electricity, and so it gets very hotwhen lightning passes through it. And, though these bolts only lastmilliseconds, the strikes produce very strong bursts of energy, making lightningone of the strongest natural phenomena on earth. Interestingly (yet somewhat unsurprisingly), these great bursts of energy comefrom the sun. The sun heats up the earth’s surface, which results indifferential heating. This means that one area is warmer than another, and warmair rises since it's less dense.Fun fact!Technically speaking, lightning is the movement of electrical charges anddoesn’t have a "temperature." Heat is actually produced when electricity flowsthrough resistance, and because air is a very good insulator, there is quite abit of resistance. As a result, it's the surrounding air that gets very hot.