Where does lightning come from in a plasma ball? How does ball lightning appear?
Ball lightning is a fairly rare and dangerous phenomenon that occurs during severe thunderstorms and rain. What is the inner world of ball lightning like? Let us consider in the article the nature of their formation.
Back in the distant year two thousand and two, experimental studies were carried out, as a result of which it was found that ball lightning is formed from ordinary lightning, which contributes to the evaporation of silicon in the soil.
When silicon cools, its vapors condense and, due to the formation of so-called nanoparticles, which are oxidized under the influence of oxygen in the surrounding air, intense heat release begins. It is as a result of such chemical and physical phenomena that ball lightning.
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Podcast Read by Pavel Morozov Download in mp3 (3.4 Mb / 05:59 min.) Unlike our distant ancestors, we know that a thunderstorm is not a punishment for sins sent by God to earth, but is quite common a natural phenomenon, and we also know that we should be afraid not of thunder, but of lightning. And although the statistics say
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Lightning is a powerful electrical discharge that occurs when clouds are highly electrified. Lightning discharges can occur both within a cloud and between neighboring clouds, which are highly electrified. Sometimes a discharge occurs between the ground and an electrified cloud. Before the lightning flash
There are more than 400 hypotheses explaining its occurrence
They always appear suddenly. Most scientists involved in their study have never seen the subject of their research with their own eyes. Experts have been arguing for centuries, but have never reproduced this phenomenon in the laboratory. However, no one puts him on a par with a UFO, Chupacabra or poltergeist. We are talking about ball lightning.
Scientists propose to concentrate efforts to search for a signal from extraterrestrial civilizations in the transit zone. Scientists from Germany insist on narrowing the search zone for potentially habitable planets. Rene Hellery and Ralph Pudritz spoke about this in an interview with Astrobiology magazine. According to them, there are currently several methods for searching for exoplanets - planets that orbit other stars. The main one is the so-called transit method, the essence of which is that astronomers observe a decrease in the brightness of a star when a planet passes between an observer from Earth and the star.
DOSSIER ON THE HELL BALL
As a rule, the appearance of ball lightning is associated with strong thunderstorms. The overwhelming number of eyewitnesses describe the object as a ball with a volume of about 1 cubic meter. dm. However, if you analyze the testimonies of airplane pilots, they often mention giant balls. Sometimes eyewitnesses describe a ribbon-like "tail" or even several "tentacles". The surface of the object most often glows evenly, sometimes pulsates, but there are rare observations of dark ball lightning. Occasionally, bright rays are mentioned escaping from the inside of the ball. The color of the surface glow can be very different. It can also change over time.
Meeting with it mysterious phenomenon very dangerous: many cases of burns and deaths from contact with ball lightning have been recorded.
VERSIONS: GAS DISCHARGE AND PLASMA CLUTCH
Attempts to unravel the phenomenon have been made for a long time.
Back in the 18th century. The outstanding French scientist Dominique François Arago published the first, very detailed work on ball lightning. In it, Arago summarized about 30 observations and thus laid the foundation for the scientific study of the phenomenon.
Of the hundreds of hypotheses, until recently, two looked most likely.
GAS DISCHARGE. In 1955, Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa presented a report “On the nature of ball lightning.” In that work, he tries to explain both the very birth of ball lightning and many of its unusual features by the emergence of short-wave electromagnetic oscillations between thunderclouds and earth's surface. The scientist believed that ball lightning is a gas discharge moving along the power lines of a standing electromagnetic
waves between clouds and ground. It doesn’t sound too clear, but we are dealing with a very complex physical phenomenon. However, even such a genius as Kapitsa could not explain the nature of the short-wave oscillations that provoke the appearance of the “hell ball”. The scientist’s assumption formed the basis of a whole trend that continues to develop to this day.
PLASMA CLUTCH. According to the outstanding scientist Igor Stakhanov (he was called “the physicist who knows everything about ball lightning”), we are dealing with a bunch of ions. Stakhanov's theory agreed well with eyewitness accounts and explained both the shape of lightning and its ability to penetrate holes, re-taking its original form. However, experiments to create a man-made bunch of ions were unsuccessful.
ANTIMATTER. The above hypotheses are quite working, and research continues on their basis. However, it is worth giving examples of more daring flights of thought. Thus, the American astronaut Jeffrey Shears Ashby suggested that ball lightning is born during annihilation (mutual annihilation with the release of huge amount energy) of antimatter particles that enter the atmosphere from space.
CREATE LIGHTNING
Creating ball lightning in laboratory conditions is a long-standing and not yet fully realized dream of many scientists.
TESLA'S EXPERIMENTS. The first attempts in this direction were made by the brilliant Nikola Tesla at the beginning of the 20th century. Unfortunately, there are no reliable descriptions of either the experiments themselves or the results obtained. In his work notes there is information that, under certain conditions, he managed to “ignite” a gas discharge that looked like a luminous spherical ball. Tesla allegedly could hold these mysterious balls in his hands and even throw them around. However, Tesla’s activities have always been shrouded in mystery and riddles. So it’s impossible to understand where truth and fiction are in the story about hand-held ball lightning.
WHITE CLUTTS. At the US Air Force Academy (Colorado) in 2013, it was possible to create bright balls by exposing a special solution to powerful electrical discharges. Strange objects were able to exist for almost half a second. Scientists have cautiously chosen to call them plasmoids rather than ball lightning. But they expect that the experiment will bring them closer to the solution.
Plasmoid. The bright white ball only existed for half a second.
AN UNEXPECTED EXPLANATION
At the end of the 20th century. A new diagnostic and treatment method has emerged - transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The idea is that by exposing an area of the brain to a focused, strong magnetic field, nerve cells (neurons) can be made to respond as if they had received a signal through the nervous system.
This can cause hallucinations in the form of fiery disks. By shifting the point of influence on the brain, you can make the disk move (as perceived by the test subject). Austrian scientists Joseph Peer and Alexander Kendl suggested that during thunderstorms, powerful magnetic fields may momentarily arise that provoke such visions. Yes, this is a unique set of circumstances, but ball lightning is rarely seen. Scientists point out that there is a greater chance if a person is in a building or an airplane (statistics confirm this). The hypothesis can only explain part of the observations: encounters with lightning that resulted in burns and deaths remain unsolved.
FIVE BRIGHT CASES
Reports of encounters with ball lightning come in constantly. In Ukraine, one of the latest took place last summer: such a “hellish ball” flew into the premises of the Dibrovsky village council in the Kirovograd region. No people were touched, but all the office equipment was burned. In science and popular science literature, a certain set of the most famous collisions between man and ball lightning has been formed.
1638. During an autumn thunderstorm in the village of Widecombe Moor in England, a ball with a diameter of more than 2 m flew into the church. According to eyewitnesses, lightning broke benches, broke windows and filled the church with smoke that smelled of sulfur. In this case, four people died. The “culprits” were soon found - they were declared to be two peasants who allowed themselves to play cards during the sermon.
1753. Georg Richmann, a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, conducts research into atmospheric electricity. Suddenly a bluish-orange ball appears and hits the scientist in the face with a crash. The scientist is killed, his assistant is stunned. A small purple spot was found on Richman's forehead, his jacket was burned, and his shoes were torn. The story is familiar to everyone who studied in Soviet times: not a single physics textbook of that time could do without a description of Richmann’s death.
1944. In Uppsala (Sweden), ball lightning passed through a window glass (a hole with a diameter of about 5 cm was left at the site of penetration). The phenomenon was observed not only by people who were on the spot: the lightning tracking system of the local university also worked.
1978. A group of Soviet climbers stopped for the night in the mountains. A bright yellow ball the size of a tennis ball suddenly appeared in the tightly buttoned tent. It crackled and moved chaotically in space. One climber died from touching the ball. The rest received multiple burns. The case became known after publication in the magazine "Technology - Youth". Now not a single forum for fans of UFOs, the Dyatlov Pass, etc. can do without mentioning that story.
2012. Incredible luck: in Tibet, ball lightning falls into the field of view of spectrometers, with the help of which Chinese scientists studied ordinary lightning. The devices managed to record a glow of 1.64 seconds in length. and obtain detailed spectra. Unlike the spectrum of ordinary lightning (there are nitrogen lines there), the spectrum of ball lightning contains many lines of iron, silicon and calcium - the main chemical elements of the soil. Some of the theories of the origin of ball lightning have received significant arguments in their favor.
Mystery. This is how an encounter with ball lightning was depicted in the 19th century.
Discovery of ball lightning
As often happens, the systematic study of ball lightning began with the denial of their existence: at the beginning of the 19th century, all scattered observations known by that time were recognized as either mysticism or, at best, an optical illusion.
But already in 1838, a review compiled by the famous astronomer and physicist Dominique Francois Arago was published in the Yearbook of the French Bureau of Geographical Longitudes.
Subsequently, he became the initiator of the experiments of Fizeau and Foucault to measure the speed of light, as well as the work that led Le Verrier to the discovery of Neptune.
Based on the then-known descriptions of ball lightning, Arago concluded that many of these observations could not be considered an illusion.
Over the 137 years that have passed since the publication of Arago's review, new eyewitness accounts and photographs have appeared. Dozens of theories were created, extravagant and ingenious, that explained some of the known properties of ball lightning, and those that did not stand up to elementary criticism.
Faraday, Kelvin, Arrhenius, Soviet physicists Ya. I. Frenkel and P. L. Kapitsa, many famous chemists, and finally, specialists from the American National Commission for Astronautics and Aeronautics NASA tried to explore and explain this interesting and formidable phenomenon. And ball lightning continues to remain largely a mystery to this day.
It is probably difficult to find a phenomenon about which information would be so contradictory. There are two main reasons: this phenomenon is very rare, and many observations are carried out in an extremely unskilled manner.
Suffice it to say that large meteors and even birds were mistaken for ball lightning, the dust of rotten, glowing in the dark stumps stuck to their wings. And yet, there are about a thousand reliable observations of ball lightning described in the literature.
What facts should scientists connect with a single theory in order to explain the nature of the occurrence of ball lightning? What restrictions do observations impose on our imagination?
The first thing to explain is: why does ball lightning occur frequently if it occurs frequently, or why does it occur rarely if it occurs rarely?
Let the reader not be surprised by this strange phrase - the frequency of occurrence of ball lightning is still a controversial issue.
And we also need to explain why ball lightning (it’s not called that for nothing) actually has a shape that is usually close to a ball.
And to prove that it is, in general, related to lightning - it must be said that not all theories associate the appearance of this phenomenon with thunderstorms - and not without reason: sometimes it occurs in cloudless weather, as do other thunderstorm phenomena, for example, lights Saint Elmo.
Here it is appropriate to recall the description of an encounter with ball lightning given by the remarkable nature observer and scientist Vladimir Klavdievich Arsenyev, a famous researcher of the Far Eastern taiga. This meeting took place in the Sikhote-Alin mountains on a clear moonlit night. Although many of the parameters of the lightning observed by Arsenyev are typical, such cases are rare: ball lightning usually occurs during a thunderstorm.
In 1966, NASA distributed a questionnaire to two thousand people, the first part of which asked two questions: “Have you seen ball lightning?” and “Have you seen in close proximity linear lightning strike?
The answers made it possible to compare the frequency of observation of ball lightning with the frequency of observation of ordinary lightning. The result was stunning: 409 out of 2 thousand people saw a linear lightning strike at close range, and two times less saw ball lightning. There was even a lucky person who met ball lightning 8 one more time one indirect proof that this is not at all like that a rare event, as is commonly thought.
Analysis of the second part of the questionnaire confirmed many previously known facts: ball lightning has an average diameter of about 20 cm; does not glow very brightly; the color is most often red, orange, white.
It is interesting that even observers who saw ball lightning close often did not feel its thermal radiation, although it burns upon direct contact.
Such lightning exists from several seconds to a minute; can penetrate into rooms through small holes, then restoring its shape. Many observers report that it throws out some sparks and rotates.
Usually it hovers at a short distance from the ground, although it has also been seen in the clouds. Sometimes ball lightning quietly disappears, but sometimes it explodes, causing noticeable destruction.
The properties already listed are enough to confuse the researcher.
What substance should, for example, consist of ball lightning if it does not fly up rapidly, like balloon Montgolfier brothers, filled with smoke, although heated to at least several hundred degrees?
Not everything is clear about the temperature either: judging by the color of the glow, the temperature of the lightning is no less than 8,000°K.
One of the observers, a chemist by profession familiar with plasma, estimated this temperature at 13,000-16,000°K! But photometry of the lightning trace left on the photographic film showed that the radiation comes out not only from its surface, but also from the entire volume.
Many observers also report that lightning is translucent and the outlines of objects can be seen through it. This means that its temperature is much lower - no more than 5,000 degrees, since with greater heating a layer of gas several centimeters thick is completely opaque and radiates like a completely black body.
The fact that ball lightning is quite “cold” is also evidenced by the relatively weak thermal effect it produces.
Ball lightning carries a lot of energy. In the literature, however, there are often deliberately inflated estimates, but even a modest realistic figure - 105 joules - for lightning with a diameter of 20 cm is very impressive. If such energy were spent only on light radiation, it could glow for many hours.
When a ball lightning explodes, a power of a million kilowatts can develop, since this explosion occurs very quickly. True, humans can create even more powerful explosions, but if compared with “calm” energy sources, the comparison will not be in their favor.
In particular, the energy capacity (energy per unit mass) of lightning is significantly higher than that of existing chemical batteries. By the way, it was the desire to learn how to accumulate relatively large energy in a small volume that attracted many researchers to the study of ball lightning. It is too early to say to what extent these hopes can be justified.
The complexity of explaining such contradictory and diverse properties has led to the fact that existing views on the nature of this phenomenon seem to have exhausted all conceivable possibilities.
Some scientists believe that lightning constantly receives energy from the outside. For example, P. L. Kapitsa suggested that it occurs when a powerful beam of decimeter radio waves, which can be emitted during a thunderstorm, is absorbed.
In reality, for the formation of an ionized clot, such as ball lightning in this hypothesis, the existence of a standing wave of electromagnetic radiation with a very high field strength at the antinodes is necessary.
The necessary conditions can be realized very rarely, so that, according to P. L. Kapitsa, the probability of observing ball lightning in a given place (that is, where a specialist observer is located) is practically zero.
It is sometimes assumed that ball lightning is the luminous part of a channel connecting the cloud with the ground, through which a large current flows. Figuratively speaking, it is assigned the role of the only visible section of an invisible linear lightning for some reason. This hypothesis was first expressed by the Americans M. Yuman and O. Finkelstein, and later several modifications of the theory they developed appeared.
The common difficulty of all these theories is that they assume the existence of energy flows of extremely high density for a long time and it is because of this that they condemn ball lightning to be an extremely unlikely phenomenon.
In addition, in the theory of Yuman and Finkelstein, it is difficult to explain the shape of lightning and its observed dimensions - the diameter of the lightning channel is usually about 3-5 cm, and ball lightning can be found up to a meter in diameter.
There are quite a few hypotheses suggesting that ball lightning itself is a source of energy. The most exotic mechanisms for extracting this energy have been invented.
An example of such exoticism is the idea of D. Ashby and K. Whitehead, according to which ball lightning is formed during the annihilation of antimatter dust grains falling into the dense layers of the atmosphere from space and then being carried away by a discharge of linear lightning to the ground.
This idea could perhaps be supported theoretically, but, unfortunately, not a single suitable antimatter particle has been discovered so far.
Most often, various chemical and even nuclear reactions are used as a hypothetical source of energy. But it is difficult to explain the spherical shape of lightning - if reactions occur in a gaseous medium, then diffusion and wind will lead to the removal of “thunderstorm substance” (Arago’s term) from a twenty-centimeter ball in a matter of seconds and deform it even earlier.
Finally, there is not a single reaction that is known to occur in air with the energy release necessary to explain ball lightning.
This point of view has been expressed many times: ball lightning accumulates the energy released when struck by linear lightning. There are also many theories based on this assumption. detailed review they can be found in S. Singer’s popular book “The Nature of Ball Lightning.”
These theories, like many others, contain difficulties and contradictions, which have received considerable attention in both serious and popular literature.
Cluster hypothesis of ball lightning
Let us now talk about the relatively new, so-called cluster hypothesis of ball lightning, being developed in last years one of the authors of this article.
Let's start with the question, why does lightning have the shape of a ball? In general terms, it is not difficult to answer this question - there must be a force capable of holding the particles of the “thunderstorm substance” together.
Why is a drop of water spherical? Surface tension gives it this shape.
Surface tension in a liquid occurs because its particles—atoms or molecules—interact strongly with each other, much more strongly than with the molecules of the surrounding gas.
Therefore, if a particle finds itself near the interface, then a force begins to act on it, tending to return the molecule to the depth of the liquid.
The average kinetic energy of liquid particles is approximately equal to the average energy of their interaction, which is why liquid molecules do not fly apart. In gases, the kinetic energy of particles exceeds the potential energy of interaction so much that the particles are practically free and there is no need to talk about surface tension.
But ball lightning is a gas-like body, and the “thunderstorm substance” nevertheless has surface tension - hence the spherical shape that it most often has. The only substance that could have such properties is plasma, an ionized gas.
Plasma consists of positive and negative ions and free electrons, that is, electrically charged particles. The energy of interaction between them is much greater than between atoms of a neutral gas, and the surface tension is correspondingly greater.
However, at relatively low temperatures - say, 1,000 degrees Kelvin - and at normal atmospheric pressure, plasma ball lightning could only exist for thousandths of a second, since the ions quickly recombine, that is, turn into neutral atoms and molecules.
This contradicts observations - ball lightning lives longer. At high temperatures - 10-15 thousand degrees - the kinetic energy of the particles becomes too great, and the ball lightning should simply fall apart. Therefore, researchers have to use potent agents to “extend the life” of ball lightning, maintaining it for at least a few tens of seconds.
In particular, P. L. Kapitsa introduced into his model a powerful electromagnetic wave capable of constantly generating new low-temperature plasma. Other researchers, suggesting that lightning plasma is hotter, had to figure out how to hold a ball of this plasma, that is, solve a problem that has not yet been solved, although it is very important for many areas of physics and technology.
But what if we take a different path - introduce into the model a mechanism that slows down the recombination of ions? Let's try using water for this purpose. Water is a polar solvent. Its molecule can be roughly thought of as a stick, one end of which is positively charged and the other negatively charged.
Water attaches to positive ions with a negative end, and to negative ions with a positive end, forming a protective layer - a solvation shell. It can dramatically slow down recombination. The ion together with its solvation shell is called a cluster.
So we finally come to the main ideas of the cluster theory: when linear lightning is discharged, almost complete ionization of the molecules that make up the air, including water molecules, occurs.
The resulting ions begin to quickly recombine; this stage takes thousandths of a second. At some point, there are more neutral water molecules than the remaining ions, and the process of cluster formation begins.
It also lasts, apparently, a fraction of a second and ends with the formation of a “thunderstorm substance” - similar in its properties to plasma and consisting of ionized air and water molecules surrounded by solvation shells.
True, so far this is all just an idea, and we need to see whether it can explain the numerous known properties of ball lightning. Let's remember the well-known saying that a hare stew at least needs a hare, and ask ourselves the question: can clusters form in the air? The answer is comforting: yes, they can.
The proof of this literally fell (was brought) from the sky. At the end of the 60s, with the help of geophysical rockets, a detailed study was carried out of the lowest layer of the ionosphere - layer D, located at an altitude of about 70 km. It turned out that, despite the fact that at such a height there is extremely little water, all the ions in the D layer are surrounded by solvation shells consisting of several water molecules.
The cluster theory assumes that the temperature of ball lightning is less than 1000°K, so there is no strong thermal radiation from it. At this temperature, electrons easily “stick” to atoms, forming negative ions, and all the properties of the “lightning substance” are determined by clusters.
In this case, the density of the lightning substance turns out to be approximately equal to the density of air under normal atmospheric conditions, that is, lightning can be somewhat heavier than air and go down, can be somewhat lighter than air and rise, and, finally, can be in suspension if the density of the “lightning substance” and air are equal.
All these cases have been observed in nature. By the way, the fact that lightning descends does not mean that it will fall to the ground - by warming up the air beneath it, it can create an air cushion that holds it suspended. Obviously, this is why soaring is the most common type of movement of ball lightning.
Clusters interact with each other much more strongly than neutral gas atoms. Estimates have shown that the resulting surface tension is quite enough to give lightning a spherical shape.
The permissible density deviation decreases rapidly with increasing lightning radius. Since the probability of an exact coincidence of the density of air and the substance of lightning is small, large lightning - more than a meter in diameter - are extremely rare, while small ones should appear more often.
But lightning smaller than three centimeters is also practically not observed. Why? To answer this question, it is necessary to consider the energy balance of ball lightning, find out where the energy is stored in it, how much of it is and what it is spent on. The energy of ball lightning is naturally contained in clusters. When negative and positive clusters recombine, energy from 2 to 10 electron volts is released.
Typically, plasma loses quite a lot of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation - its appearance is due to the fact that light electrons, moving in the ion field, acquire very high accelerations.
The substance of lightning consists of heavy particles, it is not so easy to accelerate them, therefore the electromagnetic field is emitted weakly and most of energy is removed from lightning by heat flow from its surface.
The heat flow is proportional to the surface area of the ball lightning, and the energy reserve is proportional to the volume. Therefore, small lightning quickly loses its relatively small reserves of energy, and although they appear much more often than large ones, they are more difficult to notice: they live too short.
Thus, lightning with a diameter of 1 cm cools down in 0.25 seconds, and with a diameter of 20 cm in 100 seconds. This last figure approximately coincides with the maximum observed lifetime of ball lightning, but significantly exceeds its average lifetime of several seconds.
The most realistic mechanism for the “dying” of large lightning is associated with the loss of stability of its boundary. When a pair of clusters recombines, a dozen light particles are formed, which at the same temperature leads to a decrease in the density of the “thunderstorm substance” and a violation of the conditions for the existence of lightning long before its energy is exhausted.
Surface instability begins to develop, lightning throws out pieces of its substance and seems to jump from side to side. The ejected pieces cool down almost instantly, like small lightning bolts, and the crushed large lightning bolt ends its existence.
But another mechanism of its decay is also possible. If, for some reason, heat dissipation deteriorates, the lightning will begin to heat up. At the same time, the number of clusters with a small number of water molecules in the shell will increase, they will recombine faster, and a further increase in temperature will occur. The result is an explosion.
Why does ball lightning glow?
Let us dwell on one more mystery of ball lightning: if its temperature is low (in cluster theory it is believed that the temperature of ball lightning is about 1000°K), then why does it glow? It turns out that this can be explained.
When clusters recombine, the released heat is quickly distributed between cooler molecules.
But at some point, the temperature of the “volume” near the recombined particles can exceed the average temperature of the lightning substance by more than 10 times.
This “volume” glows like gas heated to 10,000-15,000 degrees. There are relatively few such “hot spots”, so the substance of ball lightning remains translucent.
It is clear that from the point of view of cluster theory, ball lightning can appear frequently. To form lightning with a diameter of 20 cm, only a few grams of water are needed, and during a thunderstorm there is usually plenty of it. Water is most often sprayed in the air, but in extreme cases, ball lightning can “find” it on the surface of the earth.
By the way, since electrons are very mobile, when lightning forms, some of them may be “lost”; ball lightning as a whole will be charged (positively), and its movement will be determined by the distribution of the electric field.
The residual electric charge helps explain such interesting properties of ball lightning as its ability to move against the wind, be attracted to objects and hang over high places.
The color of ball lightning is determined not only by the energy of the solvation shells and the temperature of the hot “volumes”, but also chemical composition its substances. It is known that if ball lightning appears when linear lightning hits copper wires, it is often colored blue or green - the usual “colors” of copper ions.
It is quite possible that excited metal atoms can also form clusters. The appearance of such “metallic” clusters could explain some experiments with electrical discharges, which resulted in the appearance of luminous balls similar to ball lightning.
From what has been said, one may get the impression that thanks to the cluster theory, the problem of ball lightning has finally received its final solution. But it is not so.
Despite the fact that behind the cluster theory there are calculations, hydrodynamic calculations of stability, with its help it was apparently possible to understand many of the properties of ball lightning, it would be a mistake to say that the mystery of ball lightning no longer exists.
There is just one stroke, one detail to prove it. In his story, V.K. Arsenyev mentions a thin tail extending from ball lightning. So far we cannot explain the reason for its occurrence, or even what it is...
As already mentioned, about a thousand reliable observations of ball lightning are described in the literature. This is of course not very much. It is obvious that each new observation, when analyzed carefully, allows us to obtain interesting information about the properties of ball lightning, helps in testing the validity of a particular theory.
Therefore, it is very important that as many observations as possible become available to researchers and that the observers themselves actively participate in the study of ball lightning. This is precisely what the Ball Lightning experiment is aimed at, which will be discussed further.
Good day to all!
Today I propose to talk about ball lightning. No matter how hard I tried to cut down information on this topic, everything is interesting... So...
Few people are afraid of ordinary lightning - a sparking electrical discharge - and everyone knows how to behave during a thunderstorm. But what is ball lightning, is it dangerous, and what to do if you encounter this phenomenon?
What types of ball lightning are there?
It is very easy to recognize ball lightning, despite the variety of its types. Usually it has the shape of a ball, glowing like a 60-100 Watt light bulb. Much less common are lightning that looks like a pear, mushroom or drop, or such an exotic shape as a pancake, donut or lens. But the variety of colors is simply amazing: from transparent to black, but shades of yellow, orange and red are still in the lead.
The color can be uneven, and sometimes ball lightning changes it like a chameleon.
There is also no need to talk about a constant size of the plasma ball; it ranges from several centimeters to several meters. But usually people encounter ball lightning with a diameter of 10-20 centimeters.
The worst thing about describing lightning is its temperature and mass. According to scientists, the temperature can range from 100 to 1000 oC. But at the same time, people who encountered ball lightning at arm's length rarely noticed any heat emanating from them, although, logically, they should have received burns. The same mystery is with mass: no matter what size the lightning is, it weighs no more than 5-7 grams.
Behavior of ball lightning
The behavior of ball lightning is unpredictable. They refer to phenomena that appear when they want, where they want and do what they want. Thus, it was previously believed that ball lightning is born only during thunderstorms and always accompanies linear (ordinary) lightning. However, it gradually became clear that they can appear in sunny, clear weather.
It was believed that lightning is, as it were, “attracted” to places of high voltage with a magnetic field - electric wires. But there have been cases recorded when they actually appeared in the middle of an open field...
Ball lightning inexplicably erupts from electrical sockets in the house and “leaks” through the slightest cracks in the walls and glass, turning into “sausages” and then again taking on its usual shape. In this case, no melted traces remain... They either calmly hang in one place at a short distance from the ground, or rush somewhere at a speed of 8-10 meters per second.
Having met a person or animal on their way, lightning can stay away from them and behave peacefully, they can circle around curiously, or they can attack and burn or kill, after which they either melt away as if nothing had happened, or explode with a terrible roar. However, despite frequent stories of those injured or killed by ball lightning, their number is relatively small - only 9 percent.
Most often, lightning, after circling around the area, disappears without causing any harm. If it appears in the house, it usually “leaks” back out onto the street and only melts there.
Also, many inexplicable cases have been recorded when ball lightning is “attached” to some kind of specific place or to a person, and appear regularly. Moreover, in relation to a person, they are divided into two types - those that attack him every time they appear and those that do not cause harm or attack people nearby.
There is another mystery: ball lightning, having killed a person, leaves absolutely no trace on the body, and the corpse does not become numb and does not decompose for a long time...
Some scientists say that lightning simply “stops time” in the body.
Ball lightning from a scientific point of view
Ball lightning is a unique and peculiar phenomenon. Over the history of mankind, more than 10 thousand evidence of meetings with “intelligent balls” has accumulated. However, scientists still cannot boast of great achievements in the field of research of these objects. There are a lot of disparate theories about the origin and “life” of ball lightning. From time to time, in laboratory conditions, it is possible to create objects that are similar in appearance and properties to ball lightning - plasmoids. However, no one was able to provide a coherent picture and logical explanation for this phenomenon.
The most famous and developed earlier than the others is the theory of Academician P. L. Kapitsa, which explains the appearance of ball lightning and some of its features by the emergence of short-wave electromagnetic oscillations in the space between thunderclouds and the earth's surface. However, Kapitsa was never able to explain the nature of those very short-wave oscillations. In addition, as noted above, ball lightning does not necessarily accompany ordinary lightning and can appear in clear weather. However, most other theories are based on the findings of Academician Kapitsa.
A hypothesis different from Kapitza’s theory was created by B. M. Smirnov, who claims that the core of ball lightning is a cellular structure with a strong frame and low weight, and the frame is created from plasma filaments.
D. Turner explains the nature of ball lightning by thermochemical effects occurring in saturated water vapor in the presence of a sufficiently strong electric field.
However, the theory of the New Zealand chemists D. Abrahamson and D. Dinnis is considered the most interesting. They found that when lightning strikes soil containing silicates and organic carbon, a tangle of silicon and silicon carbide fibers is formed. These fibers gradually oxidize and begin to glow. This is how a “fire” ball is born, heated to 1200-1400 °C, which slowly melts. But if the temperature of the lightning goes off scale, it explodes. However, this harmonious theory does not confirm all cases of lightning occurrence.
For official science, ball lightning still continues to be a mystery. Maybe that’s why so many pseudo-scientific theories and even more fictions appear around it.
Pseudo-scientific theories about ball lightning
We will not tell here stories about demons with glowing eyes, leaving behind the smell of sulfur, hellhounds and “birds of fire,” as ball lightning was sometimes represented. However, their strange behavior allows many researchers of this phenomenon to assume that lightning “thinks.” At a minimum, ball lightning is considered a device for exploring our world. At the most, by energy entities that also collect some information about our planet and its inhabitants.
An indirect confirmation of these theories can be the fact that any collection of information is work with energy.
And the unusual property of lightning to disappear in one place and appear instantly in another. There are suggestions that the same ball lightning “dives” into a certain part of space - another dimension, living according to different physical laws - and, having dumped information, appears again in our world at a new point. And the actions of lightning in relation to living creatures on our planet are also meaningful - they do not touch some, they “touch” others, and from some they simply tear out pieces of flesh, as if for genetic analysis!
The frequent occurrence of ball lightning during thunderstorms is also easily explained. During bursts of energy - electrical discharges - portals from a parallel dimension open, and their collectors of information about our world enter our world...
What to do when encountering ball lightning?
The main rule when ball lightning appears - whether in an apartment or on the street - is not to panic and not to make sudden movements. Don't run anywhere! Lightning is very susceptible to the air turbulence that we create when running and other movements and which pull it along with us. You can only get away from ball lightning with a car, but not under your own power.
Try to quietly move out of the lightning's path and stay away from it, but do not turn your back on it. If you are in an apartment, go to the window and open the window. With a high degree of probability, lightning will fly out.
And, of course, never throw anything into ball lightning! It can not just disappear, but explode like a mine, and then serious consequences (burns, injuries, sometimes loss of consciousness and cardiac arrest) are inevitable.
If ball lightning touched someone and the person lost consciousness, then he must be moved to a well-ventilated room, wrapped warmly, given artificial respiration and be sure to call an ambulance.
In general, technical means of protection against ball lightning as such have not yet been developed. The only “ball lightning rod” that currently exists was developed by the leading engineer of the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering B. Ignatov. Ignatov's ball lightning rod has been patented, but only a few similar devices have been created; there is no talk of actively introducing it into life yet.
Human fear most often comes from ignorance. Few people are afraid of ordinary lightning - a sparking electrical discharge - and everyone knows how to behave during a thunderstorm. But what is ball lightning, is it dangerous, and what to do if you encounter this phenomenon? What types of ball lightning are there? It is very easy to recognize ball lightning, despite the variety of its types. Usually it has, as you can easily guess, the shape of a ball, glowing like a 60-100 Watt light bulb. Much less common are lightning that looks like a pear, mushroom or drop, or such an exotic shape as a pancake, donut or lens. But the variety of colors is simply amazing: from transparent to black, but shades of yellow, orange and red are still in the lead. The color can be uneven, and sometimes ball lightning changes it like a chameleon. There is also no need to talk about a constant size of the plasma ball; it ranges from several centimeters to several meters. But usually people encounter ball lightning with a diameter of 10-20 centimeters. The worst thing about describing lightning is its temperature and mass. According to scientists, the temperature can range from 100 to 1000 o C. But at the same time, people who encountered ball lightning at arm's length rarely noted any heat emanating from them, although according to logic, they should have received burns . The same mystery is with mass: no matter what size the lightning is, it weighs no more than 5-7 grams.
What is said about the properties of ball lightning on Wikipedia:
Numerous observations of the behavior of ball lightning made it possible to determine the basic physical properties of ball lightning (BL):
- Ball or pear shape;
- Phenomenal appearance. Can occur unexpectedly in a wide variety of conditions. There has been a recorded case of emergence even from a nail in the wall;
- Wide range of fixed sizes, from 1 cm to 27 m in diameter;
- Self-luminescence with a power of 100-200 Watts, visible even in the daytime;
- Cold surface, that is, the ball does not emit heat;
- Lifetime from 1 second to 2 minutes;
- Passing through a substance such as glass. Drops of pouring rain pass through the BL without affecting anyone;
- Strong electromagnetic radiation in an unusually wide range of wavelengths from fractions of a micrometer to meters;
- Presence of electric and magnetic fields;
- The ability to levitate - lift and move objects;
- Ability to deform and penetrate through small holes;
- Unpredictability of movement, can even move against the wind;
- Free soaring at any altitude;
- Unusually high internal energy;
- Ability to move along the surface of metal objects;
- Ability to stick to metal objects;
- Rotation of air and dust inside the CMM;
- Ability to divide;
- The ability to explode spontaneously or upon touching objects. There are cases when after an explosion the BL does not disappear;
- During explosions, most of the metal parts of objects are damaged and burnt out, while the dielectric parts remain intact;
- Ball lightning can be invisible, but when exposed to force, for example, by ultraviolet radiation, it begins to glow.