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Ball Lightning Phenomenon: What is it?

Ball Lightning?

A glowing sphere that appears out of nowhere and disappear into thin air is what is meant something is called “ball lightning.”
Its diameter ranges from two to ten inches.
It typically appears right before, following, or during a thunderstorm.
It can last anywhere between a few seconds and a few minutes.
“Ball lightning has a size-dependent longevity and a brightness-dependent lifetime.”
Clearly, orange and blue balls appear to persist longer than usual.
Ball lightning typically moves perpendicular to the earth, although it can also jump vertically.
Sometimes it emerges from the sky; other times, it appears out of nowhere, either inside or outside, or it enters a space through a window, either closed or open, a thin nonmetallic wall, or a chimney.

A “hot globe of plasma” has been hypothesised to be what causes ball lightning, but this notion has been debunked because ball lightning does not rise like a hot air balloon.
Numerous physicists have hypothesised that electrical discharges must be the cause of ball lightning.
Pyotr Kapitsa, a Russian physicist, for instance, defined ball lightning as an electrodeless discharge brought on by stationary UHF waves of unknown origin existing between the earth and a cloud.
Another idea states that an air maser with a volume of many cubic kilometres and operating at a considerably lower intensity than a laser is what causes outdoor ball lightning.

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John Abrahamson and James Dinniss, two scientists from New Zealand, assert that ball lightning is made up of “fluffy balls of burning silicon generated by regular fork lightning striking the earth.”

Their hypothesis states that when lightning strikes the ground, the minerals are split down into minute silicon particles and silicon compounds made of oxygen and carbon.
The minuscule charged particles create chains that eventually develop into filamentary networks.

Ball Lightning


These form a loose, fluffy ball that is lifted into the air by air currents.
Until the phenomenon burns itself out, it hovers there as ball lightning or a burning sphere of fluffy silicon, expelling the energy absorbed from the lightning in the form of heat and light.

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Since ancient times, thousands of individuals in numerous locations have seen ball lightning.
The majority of physicists appear to think there is little doubt that it is a genuine occurrence.
However, there is still debate over both its nature and its causes.

The physical makeup of ball lightning, an atmospheric occurrence, is still up for debate.
The phrase describes tales of glowing objects that are typically spherical and range in size from peas to several metres.
Although lightning flashes only last a fraction of a second, ball lightning is occasionally linked to thunderstorms and is said to last for several seconds.
Although visual effects from laboratory tests have been compared to accounts of “ball lightning,” it is currently unknown whether these are genuinely connected to the naturally occurring kind.

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Due to its rarity and unpredictable nature, natural ball lightning has little scientific documentation.
The assumption of its existence is predicated on public reports of sightings, which has led to some conflicting results.
The real nature of ball lightning is still a mystery because of discrepancies and a lack of trustworthy data.
Ball lightning used to be frequently dismissed as a myth or a prank.
Lack of tangible evidence led to reports of the phenomenon being discounted, and it was frequently treated in the same way as reports of UFO sightings.
The enormous volume of reports, however, has recently sparked a resurgence of curiosity about the phenomenon’s potential existence and characteristics.

Natural ball lightning is rarely captured on camera because of how unpredictable and infrequently it occurs.
But there are numerous images and even movies online of what some people call “ball lightning.”

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