It seems that modern physics has studied everything everywhere. No mysteries of any kind are left for our contemporaries. Some try to find secrets in ordinary places, with anomalous zones where supermarkets are located. Nevertheless, there are quite a few physical mysteries that remain unsolved to this day. One of the most mysterious and alluring was and is ball lightning. However much data scientists collect about it, the solution is still far off.
The phenomenon also has a rich palette of colours; the most common colours are yellow, orange and red, but white and black specimens occur. The diameter of the “ball” averages 10-20, but eyewitnesses claim to have met lightning up to several metres in diameter. It does not have fixed sizes. Having appeared at a size of 10 cm, it can grow to half a metre in a matter of seconds. The behaviour of this lightning also defies logic – sometimes it quietly appears and vanishes, and sometimes, no sooner has it appeared than it explodes abruptly.
Although between 100 and 1000 ball lightnings are present on Earth at any time, the risk of seeing one with one's own eyes approaches 0.1%. There are no clear rules of behaviour, but the general recommendations are these: do not run from it, do not shout, and all movements should be smooth and slow. One can try to open a window; there is a chance that in that case the lightning will fly away. The flight of the “ball” follows the relief of the ground. Scientists suppose that it is made of matter which by its properties is heavier than air. It is practically the only natural phenomenon that scientists cannot create in laboratory conditions.
What is unknown about ball lightning
What electric discharges are, how they arise in the layers of the atmosphere and how a thunderstorm works, science can explain with ease. What ball lightning is has still not been established to this day. There are already about 400 different theories of the origin of this phenomenon in the world, but not one of them has been recognised as plausible or final. Ball lightning appears in thundery weather and in clear weather alike, so no dependence on weather conditions has yet been traced.The phenomenon also has a rich palette of colours; the most common colours are yellow, orange and red, but white and black specimens occur. The diameter of the “ball” averages 10-20, but eyewitnesses claim to have met lightning up to several metres in diameter. It does not have fixed sizes. Having appeared at a size of 10 cm, it can grow to half a metre in a matter of seconds. The behaviour of this lightning also defies logic – sometimes it quietly appears and vanishes, and sometimes, no sooner has it appeared than it explodes abruptly.
Although between 100 and 1000 ball lightnings are present on Earth at any time, the risk of seeing one with one's own eyes approaches 0.1%. There are no clear rules of behaviour, but the general recommendations are these: do not run from it, do not shout, and all movements should be smooth and slow. One can try to open a window; there is a chance that in that case the lightning will fly away. The flight of the “ball” follows the relief of the ground. Scientists suppose that it is made of matter which by its properties is heavier than air. It is practically the only natural phenomenon that scientists cannot create in laboratory conditions.