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In recent years, researchers have documented a number of weird atmospheric phenomena on
Earth that were previously unproven or even unknown.
There are transient luminous events like Red Sprites, Blue Jets, Gigantic Jets and ELVES,
there are noctilucent clouds, and rarely seen variants of familiar phenomena, like green
lightning and red auroras.
These are just a few of the incredible occurrences we’ve been able to observe and verify.
Yet, despite amazing advances in our technology and research capabilities, there are still
phenomena that are almost completely outside our ability to prove them.
Of these, none is stranger and more terrifying than ball lightning, an alleged electrical
occurrence so mind-boggling that it sounds, well, made-up!
Ball lightning has been reported so many times and received so much scientific scrutiny that
it occupies an unusual place between science and folklore.
But unlike most myths, ball lightning has a mounting body of evidence that suggests
we should not only take its existence seriously – but that we might already have proof it
does.
So, what is ball lightning?
How are scientists attempting to reproduce it in laboratories?
And, if it is a real phenomenon, as many experts believe, why is it so difficult to prove?
I’m Alex McColgan, and you are watching Astrum.
Join me today as we look at the fascinating history of ball lightning encounters, examine
some of the most intriguing new theories out there, and learn about stunning laboratory
experiments that are attempting to get to the bottom of one of science’s strangest
unsolved mysteries.
For centuries, accounts of ball lightning have come from all over the world.
The stories vary, but many agree on certain details: the phenomenon appears as a bright
burning orb, sometimes golf ball-sized and sometimes much larger.
It’s usually white or blue, but it can also be red, orange or yellow.
The phenomenon is said to last between one and several seconds, float in a slow path,
at times changing direction, sometimes even erratically, and has been alleged to pass
through walls and windows unscathed.
According to some reports, the ball lightning fizzles; in others, it explodes violently
causing severe damage, and leaving behind an odour that has been described as sulfurous.
At its most destructive, ball lightning has been reported to maim and kill people, and
to blast apart heavy walls, doors and ships.
Now, on this channel, we don’t accept anecdotal evidence as proof, no matter how compelling:
only observation, controlled testing and repeatability can confirm a phenomenon scientifically!
So, with that in mind, let’s look at a few of the alleged ball lightning encounters I
find most intriguing.
In 1739, the Catherine and Mary was sailing down the gulf coast of Florida when it ran
into a deadly thunderstorm.
According to an eyewitness, “a large ball of fire fell from the element and split our
mast in ten thousand pieces… killed one man, another had his hand carried off, and
had it not been for the violent rains, our sails would have been of a blast of fire.”
That’s quite a story, but it gets weirder!
In 1753, Georg Richmann, a renowned professor and electrical researcher, was attending a
conference in Saint Petersburg when he saw a storm approaching.
Bringing an engraver to record his observations, he hurried to conduct a kite experiment like
the one Benjamin Franklin had performed the previous year.
As reported afterwards by the engraver, Richmann was conducting the experiment when a fiery
blue orb crawled down the string, fatally striking him and knocking the engraver unconscious.
The reported autopsy found a coin-sized red mark on the professor’s forehead and injuries
consistent with electrocution.
But maybe the most compelling eye-witness account comes from 1963, when R.C.
Jennison, a researcher at the University of Kent, was flying late at night from New York
to Washington.
Jennison was sitting in the cabin shortly after midnight when the plane became enveloped
in a bright electrical discharge.
Within seconds, a bright glowing sphere about 20 centimetres in diameter emerged from the
pilot’s cabin and travelled the length of the aircraft.
In 1969, Jennison published his observations in precise detail in the pages of Nature Magazine.
Due to credible reports like Jennison’s, scientists have taken the phenomenon seriously
and put forward numerous models to explain it.
One theory proposes that ball lightning could be a hallucination triggered by the magnetic
field close to a lightning strike.
Citing similar hallucinations experienced during epileptic seizures, this theory suggests
that ball lightning could be a figment of the stimulated occipital lobe.
However, if true, it would seemingly contradict reported damages caused by ball lightning,
such as the death of Georg Richmann.
Another hypothesis proposes that ball lightning is a contained plasma reaction, like St. Elmo’s
Fire, the phenomenon famously observed on the masts of ships, when the voltage between
the air and ground is great enough to break the air molecules into highly excited particles.
According to this theory, the plasma in ball lightning becomes a self-contained bubble
that behaves as a soliton, a self-reinforced wave that maintains its shape and moves at
constant velocity.
Don’t worry if you find this confusing.
We’re touching on a pretty complicated subject that even researchers are still struggling
to understand!
One of the most promising hypotheses was proposed by John Abrahamson and James Dinniss at the
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, in the year 2000.
This model proposes that a powerful positive lightning strike can vaporize molecules in
soil, causing energized nanoparticles that then react with oxygen in the air to produce
light and heat.
And remarkably, this model is supported by a strange incident that occurred ten years
ago in Lanzhou, China.
Remember when I said there weren’t any verified recordings of ball lightning?
Well, that may not be entirely true.
In July 2012, researchers from Northwest Normal University had set up spectrometers to record
ordinary lightning when a powerful lightning strike produced a glowing white orb.
The orb had an estimated glow 5 meters across, which turned red as it travelled for 10 meters
before ascending into the air.
All this was recorded with high-speed video, which sadly hasn’t been made public, and
a spectrometer recording, which has.
The spectrometer confirmed emission lines from silicon, calcium and iron—all common
in soil.
So, if this observed phenomenon was in fact ball lightning, as it appears, then it adds
strong evidence to support the vaporized silicon hypothesis.
But the model doesn’t account for certain behaviours described in ball lightning encounters,
such as the ability to pass through solid matter.
So, what does this mean?
Well, either those accounts are wrong, or ball lightning could actually be a collection
of separate phenomena.
In addition to proposing theoretical models, scientists have attempted to reproduce ball
lightning in laboratories, with incredible results.
One experiment at the Max Planck institute reportedly produced a ball lightning-type
effect when researchers discharged a high-voltage capacitor into liquid water.
In 2006, researchers at Tel Aviv University conducted an experiment by pointing a microwave
drill, made up of a magnetron and a microwave beam, at a strip of solid silicon.
When the researchers pulled the beam away, the drag produced a tiny ball of plasma – nearly
identical in appearance to reports of ball lightning!
An astonishing result, to be sure, but is this laboratory-produced phenomenon the same
as ones reported in nature?
It’s very possible, but as of right now, we simply don’t know!
Another experiment, conducted in 2018, came to even more stunning conclusions.
Using advanced experimental engineering, physicists successfully created a Shankar skyrmion, a
quasiparticle that is like a tangled 3-dimensional magnetic field.
Without getting too complicated, what the researchers did was apply an external magnetic
field to a system of rubidium atoms near absolute zero.
The magnetic field controlled the atoms in such a way that they all spun facing the same
direction on the knot’s surface, while twisting unusually on the inside.
In other words, the magnetic field maintained a stable spherical configuration, able to
do things like squish or deform while still retaining its essential properties.
This discovery could have major implications for quantum computing, but researchers also
believe the synthetic magnetic field they created models the expected electromagnetic
field of ball lightning!
This theory will require a lot of follow-up research, but it’s a promising discovery
that could explain some of ball lightning’s alleged characteristics, such as the ability
to pass through solid barriers.
So, there we have it, a survey of the incredible history of ball lightning encounters, as well
as the cutting-edge research that has come tantalizingly close to proving it.
So, what do you think?
Do you find any of these theories convincing?
Have you, or anyone you know, ever experienced an encounter with something that looked like
ball lightning?
I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
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