Ball lightening

[Alien 13]

There have been a lot of thunderstorms recently and it got me thinking about the strange phenomena of ball lightening, from what I gather there is no conscientious as to what it might be, theory's range from some sort of plasma to elemental micro black holes...

I wonder what the latest view is?, I remember my Grandmother encountering one over 50 years ago about the size of a football that entered her home and moved through it and exited via the back door with no damage to anything. 

Alan

[Sunshine]

What? entered her house and left again! i think i would swing at it with a broom if that happened, I've heard those theories but, i don't think it has ever been capture on film?.

[vlaiv]

25 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

What? entered her house and left again! i think i would swing at it with a broom if that happened, I've heard those theories but, i don't think it has ever been capture on film?.

 

[saac]

Cue the slightly out of focus and ever so shaky video - not much different from my astro photography work

Jim 

[vlaiv]

1 hour ago, Alien 13 said:

There have been a lot of thunderstorms recently and it got me thinking about the strange phenomena of ball lightening, from what I gather there is no conscientious as to what it might be, theory's range from some sort of plasma to elemental micro black holes...

I wonder what the latest view is?, I remember my Grandmother encountering one over 50 years ago about the size of a football that entered her home and moved through it and exited via the back door with no damage to anything. 

Alan

Not sure, but this is interesting paper on the subject:

http://depa.fquim.unam.mx/amyd/archivero/Articulo-fenomenos-tormentas-electricas_26310.pdf

There is interesting observation in that paper, to quote:

Quote

In the visible range, most of the emission lines are radiated by neutral silicon, iron, and calcium

Now, in first video that I posted above, there is section "Ball lightning in the lab" where they show sparks and miniature "ball lightnings" that look like coming from welding machine - like a piece of metal burning really hot - maybe like Thermite mixture - which creates plasma bubble that bounces around when in contact with solid objects?

Maybe ball lightning is similar thing when lightning strikes ground and there is sand and iron present - forms similar thing?

[vlaiv]

I guess this is latest theory and is backed up by above paper:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24886-natural-ball-lightning-probed-for-the-first-time/

Sand in soil gets vaporized, or rather carbon from leaves and other carbon sources steal oxygen from sand to form pure silicon that is vaporized that re-oxidizes and that makes it glow (according to article and lab tests in 2006).

[Craney]

Grandmas must attract it  !!!     My granny was similarly chased around her house by such a phenomena.   

If she ever visited when a storm was about, she would say  "unplug the telly and open the window to let the lightning out !!"

[Sunshine]

About as elusive as St.Elmos Fire, equally as beautiful and mysterious.

 

[Alien 13]

10 hours ago, Craney said:

Grandmas must attract it  !!!     My granny was similarly chased around her house by such a phenomena.   

If she ever visited when a storm was about, she would say  "unplug the telly and open the window to let the lightning out !!"

I have a feeling that ball lightening was much more common years ago, I would expect the internet to be full of mobile phone captures with todays increased population and available technology but it isn't...

The other thing my gran would say is that it wasn't floating around but levitating at a constant distance from the floor as though it had anti gravity properties... The event lasted several minutes too.

Alan

Edited August 13, 2019 by Alien 13

[Craney]

My Nan could not read or write and so she never followed up on her experience apart from telling her story by spoken word.     As a teenager I was fascinated to hear her describe the phenomena first hand.  This was the era before the internet and my knowledge of the strange and unexplained came from libraries and in particular "Aurthur C.Clarkes Mysterious World".

Her description was very close to the other accounts in the detail.   One thing I remember was her saying that the bright sphere came down the chimney, followed her around the room and when she opened the window to 'shoo' it out   (!!!!), the object passed through the glass.

For a lady of her background, that must have been on a par to seeing a ghost !

 

Sean.

 

[Alien 13]

4 minutes ago, Craney said:

My Nan could not read or write and so she never followed up on her experience apart from telling her story by spoken word.     As a teenager I was fascinated to hear her describe the phenomena first hand.  This was the era before the internet and my knowledge of the strange and unexplained came from libraries and in particular "Aurthur C.Clarkes Mysterious World".

Her description was very close to the other accounts in the detail.   One thing I remember was her saying that the bright sphere came down the chimney, followed her around the room and when she opened the window to 'shoo' it out   (!!!!), the object passed through the glass.

For a lady of her background, that must have been on a par to seeing a ghost !

 

Sean.

 

I have had other older relatives with similar experiences, this was before TV so was not something they had seen elsewhere and imagined. My Gran was also very insistent that you have your doors open during a thunderstorm just in case.....

Alan

[swag72]

I've experienced Ball lightening and it was really weird. My husband and I, both sat in different parts of the room, suddenly saw a light blue circular 'thing' in the front room under a window for a couple of seconds. It then disappeared with a 'crack' and we were searching all around for exploded electrical items....... It was a very surreal experience. 

[david_taurus83]

These are clearly the results of Skynet's early experimentation with its Quantum Field Generator.

[Alien 13]

I have to admit that I am confused by the lack of interest by the scientific community in this phenomena, after all we have an object that....

Has a life of a few milliseconds up to many minutes.

Has mass.

Can defy gravity.

Can move against a wind.

Can bounce off certain objects yet pass through others unaffected.

Yet we spend billions on colliders that will never be big enough to answer the questions we want answered.

Alan

 

 

[ollypenrice]

I agree that it's surprising more work hasn't been done. It might be the catalyst to a more general discovery, perhaps.

Vaguely related, this is a fascinating book about research into the Aurora: https://www.amazon.com/Northern-Lights-Unlocked-Secrets-Borealis/dp/0375708820

Olly

[Thalestris24]

I'm reminded of one of my favourite movies, 'Night of the Demon' aka 'Casting the Runes'.

"It's in the trees!" Ha ha.

Louise

[Alien 13]

10 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

I'm reminded of one of my favourite movies, 'Night of the Demon' aka 'Casting the Runes'.

"It's in the trees!" Ha ha.

Louise

The scariest movie of all time, watched it as a kid and had nightmares for 40 years...

Alan

[Thalestris24]

1 minute ago, Alien 13 said:

The scariest movie of all time, watched it as a kid and had nightmares for 40 years...

Alan

I've watched it loads of times. I find it more atmospheric than scary. It's so 1950's in b+w and with Dana Andrews - the movie just reflects the then zeitgeist - seances, the unknown and the supernatural, and fears of the cold war. No motorways, computers, no mobile phones, but big old country houses. It's just great!

Louise

[Carbon Brush]

Very interesting stuff.

I have just ordered the book mentioned by Olly.

A work colleague has recounted a sighting from 50+ years ago, when school age. It was seen by a friend as well.
The location was a residential street in a small town
The weather was thundery. But it was not actually raining.
There was a sharp noise. A crack. The ball, about 1/2 metre diameter was on a house roof, near a chimney.
The appearance was a white glowing ball.
It slid (rolled?) down the roof and fell into the garden. A high fence prevented further viewing.
It is thought there was crackling noise associated with the ball.

Yet another mention of someone who saw something, rather than a first hand report.

Surely now we can expect sightings to pop up on security cameras, or quick fingered phone users.

David.

[JOC]

I thought many of these sightings were explained by the Will'o'the wisp phenomenon, which does appear to have an explanation:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o'-the-wisp

[Alien 13]

On 21/08/2019 at 12:25, JOC said:

I thought many of these sightings were explained by the Will'o'the wisp phenomenon, which does appear to have an explanation:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o'-the-wisp

I think that is a slightly different phenomenon, my personal view is that ball lightening is caused by micro black holes that are picked up as the solar system moves through the galaxy, could explain why they were so common in the past (my Gran witnessed several) and virtually none existent now..

Alan 

[LukeSkywatcher]

I saw ball lightning when I was a young teen. It was a globe of white/blue. It was about 6-7 inches in diameter, and it hovered about 5ft off the ground for a good few seconds before vanishing in an instant.

[Astroscot2]

In a round about way Lighting started the beginnings of my interest in Astronomy, when I was primary school there seemed to be plenty of storms approaching the summer, I recall running home one day during a Thunderstorm after school and seeing a lighting strike that resembled a row of beads, I found a book in the school library called "Lightning and Thunder"  and there listed and described was bead lighting just as I had seen, I continually borrowed that book as I was fascinated by weather,  However I was asked to return it and picked up another book by Leslie Peltier called Guidepost to the Stars and there began another fascination that has lasted 40 years.

 

Out of interest - I remember seeing a short video on Spaceweather a few years ago that was taken by pilot in the cockpit prior to take off, The video was of the top of a thunderhead that had a vortex spinning and shifting very rapidly, apparently this phenomena had never been seen before, Ive searched for the video without success.

 

Mark 

[Robert72]

Wasn't there a period in the 90s(?) where there was a high level of ball lightning activity in at least one mountain range in South America, that usually preceded seismic activity?

[Mognet]

On 20/12/2019 at 20:56, Robert72 said:

Wasn't there a period in the 90s(?) where there was a high level of ball lightning activity in at least one mountain range in South America, that usually preceded seismic activity?

That sounds like earthquake lights, which can apparently be spherical. Wikipedia has some information on them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light