Is the mysterious ball lightning a natural phenomenon?

In summer, on a thunderstorm night, the flames are everywhere, and bright lightning will cut through the silent night sky. When the fire is brightest, it's like daytime. This kind of discharge in the atmosphere is now a normal natural phenomenon to us. Scientists estimate that, on average, there will be more than 100 lightning events around the world every second. The lightning quadrants we usually see in the sky are mostly branched dendrites.

Generally speaking, lightning requires thick cumulus clouds. When a large amount of charge is accumulated in the cloud, a strong potential difference will occur. Although air is not a good conductor of electricity, it will ionize the space with enough voltage to form a discharge channel, and this channel often appears bifurcated tree, which is what we see when lightning occurs. Generally, lightning usually occurs between clouds, between clouds and the ground, and within clouds.

We have fully understood this kind of discharge phenomenon in the atmosphere, because they occur with high frequency, wide range and long duration, which provides good conditions for scientific research. But there is another very special natural discharge phenomenon in nature: spherical lightning. Because this kind of lightning is very rare and elusive, it has always been regarded as a rumor or an unnatural phenomenon. However, with the development of modern photography technology, we have obtained a lot of valuable image data about spherical lightning. This phenomenon is only confirmed by scientific theory and has become one of the mysterious phenomena in scientific research and exploration in recent years.

Almost all the records and records about spherical lightning occur in thunderstorm weather, and often appear after a particularly large normal lightning. What is even more amazing is that spherical lightning does not happen in the sky, but floats in the air near the place, so people also call it ground rolling thunder.

As the name implies, spherical lightning is almost perfect, with a diameter of 15 to 40, which usually lasts for tens of seconds and the longest is about one minute. In the process of its existence, it will contain huge energy in a very small sphere, and it will show different colors according to the different energy, from red, orange to bright white, which is very dazzling. Of course, under its mysterious appearance, this lightning-fast imagination is also extremely destructive. Generally, it floats at low altitude, sometimes it will bounce off when it hits the ground, and it will be burned where it touches. When there are live conductors or wires nearby, it will cause spectacular discharge and destroy the power grid, which is somewhat similar to the scene of science fiction movies.

Moreover, spherical lightning will fly indoors from windows or chimneys, causing more serious damage. Sometimes it will explode when encountering obstacles, releasing energy instantly, and sometimes it will disappear silently. No one believed such a strange thing before, which makes sense. However, at present, there are many reports about this phenomenon at home and abroad.

There is a special phenomenon about spherical lightning in Germany. The first thing people saw was a big fireball falling from the sky and then hitting the top of a big tree. Immediately, the big ball was dispersed into a dozen small balls, scattered on the ground, and then disappeared. Looks like a fairy tale.

On a farm in the Soviet Union, two children were in their cowshed when they suddenly saw an orange fireball falling on the poplar tree in front of a cowshed, still approaching them. One of the children kicked in a panic and the fireball exploded all his life. Fortunately, the two children were knocked down at random, but they were not injured. People later thought that this fireball was spherical lightning.

A very strange thing happened in America. A housewife came back from the market to buy food. When she opened the refrigerator, she saw that all the food in it was cooked. She remembered that all the food in her refrigerator was raw. Later, according to scientists, ball lightning ran into the refrigerator and turned it into an electric oven, but strangely, the refrigerator was not damaged.

1962 In July, scientists from China studied thunderstorm weather at the top of Mount Tai and witnessed spherical lightning. With a flash of lightning in the sky, the staff found that a spherical lightning of 15 cm entered the room from the window, the hot kettle and oil lamp on the table were destroyed, and the sheets were burned with a scorch mark of 10 cm long. Then the red fireball floated out of the room and exploded. There are many such situations, but they are all similar. They suddenly appeared mysteriously and their whereabouts were uncertain. Then they either explode or they don't disappear, only for a short time.

Since19th century, scientists have begun to study and explain how this phenomenon happened. Although people have obtained some rich information and some scientists have witnessed this phenomenon with their own eyes, the cause of spherical lightning is still unclear. Some people think that it is a high-temperature plasma, while others think that it is just a special form of atmospheric discharge. And some people say that this is a quantum effect, and string theory is used to explain this phenomenon.

Based on the natural laws mastered by human beings, many formation mechanisms and models of spherical lightning have been put forward, but all of them can only explain some properties of spherical lightning. Because spherical lightning in nature is very rare, and we can't capture and study it in the laboratory, there is no universally recognized model yet. For two hundred years, nature is still showing its amazing creativity to human beings. What scientific mystery is hidden in spherical lightning? I believe that one day we will solve the mystery of ball lightning.