If you have ever seen a mysterious ball of lightning chasing a cow or flying through your window during a thunderstorm, take comfort from the fact that you have witnessed a very rare phenomenon. Indeed, ball lightning -- a slow-moving ball of light that is occasionally seen at ground level during storms -- has puzzled scientists for centuries. Now, however, researchers in Israel have built a system that can create lightning balls in the lab. The work may not only help us to understand ball lightning but could even lead to practical applications that make use of these artificial balls (Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 045002).
(Via The Anomalist.)
UFO debunkers have long seized on ball lightning as an "explanation" for sightings, essentially explaining an unknown by substituting another. Ufologists would be well-served to study the behavior and duration of artificial ball lightning in an effort to decrease "false positives" and address the "skeptics" armed with solid understanding of an until-now elusive phenomenon.
2 comments:
My fathers radio set was hit and destroyed by ball lightning in the 1940s. In those days in that part of the UK it was a common occurence and if a storm brewed up, people opened their windows and doors to let the phenomenon fly in and out. Many times folk who had seen the objects enter their homes in this way, swore they ball lightning "seemed" intelligent and was "looking" around their rooms. Usually no damage was caused (apart from my dads beloved radio set!)
"Non-classified way"? Surely you're just kidding around! ;-)
I heard a provocative theory from a UFO investigator that some crop formations were "painted" by satellites. Given the many reports (and filmed examples) of weird lights in the vicinity of formations, maybe artificial ball lightning is a better culprit than microwave lasers.
Post a Comment