Ball lightning is one of the most mysterious natural atmospheric phenomena that is currently not fully understood. Such lightning appears as unexpectedly as it disappears. Until now, the mechanism of its formation and the conditions conducive to this are not clear, although it is known that it is a high-voltage electrical bunch.
There are many theories about the origin of ball lightning today. Someone says that this is an exclusively physical phenomenon, someone sees paranormal mysticism in this. Although most scientists agree with the version that this is a bunch of electrified plasma that moves along an arbitrary trajectory.
Lightning type
The whole problem lies in the fact that ball lightning, unlike ordinary lightning, is very difficult to fix with a photo and video camera, since it appears unpredictably and not always during a thunderstorm. In addition, these spherical discharges appear much less frequently than lightning discharges or lightning.
The testimony of eyewitnesses who saw the lightning boil down to the fact that it is a white ball moving along an unpredictable zigzag path. The ball usually has a complex texture and a plume, usually there is no center, and if there is, then it is floating, and multiple small vertical electrical discharges tend to it. In 2012, ball lightning accidentally fell under the sight of spectrometers, as a result of which it was possible to determine its chemical composition, which includes the following elements:
- iron;
- silicon;
- calcium.
But until now no one can explain how a plasma with such a chemical composition can fly.
Lightning behavior
It can be said with a high degree of confidence, based on long-term observations, that a spherical charged plasma has a diameter of 5 cm to 2.5 m. Its appearance is rather short-lived, the visible part moves only for a few seconds. In this case, lightning can escape through the window, sometimes even burning through the glass, or disappear into the ground, leaving no trace. The most inexplicable fact in the history of observation of ball lightning is that it was seen even during the Second World War in submarines at great depths. Many cases have been described when plasma, having flown into a room, brought destruction, and sometimes death of its inhabitants.
Observation stories
The ball lightning stories are over two thousand years old. In ancient times, such a lightning was taken for a message from higher powers and, depending on the time and place, this event was interpreted in different ways.
Interestingly, according to the testimony of N. Tesla's contemporaries, he was able to achieve significant progress in the study of ball lightning and was even able to obtain it in laboratory conditions, but for some reason he destroyed all his records. To date, none of the world's scientists have succeeded in obtaining ball lightning in laboratory conditions after Tesla.
