Home Preparations for the winter What causes ball lightning. Where do ball lightning come from? Theoretical explanations of the phenomenon

Preparations for the winter

What causes ball lightning. Where do ball lightning come from? Theoretical explanations of the phenomenon

There are more than 400 hypotheses explaining its occurrence.

They always appear suddenly. Most of the scientists involved in their study have never seen the subject of research with their own eyes. Experts have been arguing for centuries, but have never reproduced this phenomenon in the lab. Nevertheless, no one puts it on a par with a UFO, Chupacabra or poltergeist. It's about ball lightning.

DOSSIER ON THE HELL BALL

As a rule, the appearance of ball lightning is associated with severe thunderstorms. The overwhelming majority of eyewitnesses describe the object as a ball with a volume of about 1 cubic meter. dm. However, if we analyze the testimonies of aircraft 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 uniformly, sometimes pulsing, but there are rare observations of dark ball lightning. Rarely, bright rays are mentioned erupting from the inside of the ball. The color of the glow of the surface is very different. Also, it can change over time.

Meeting with this mysterious phenomenon is very dangerous: many cases of burns and deaths from contact with ball lightning have been recorded.

VERSIONS: GAS DISCHARGE AND PLASMA BLOCK

Attempts to unravel the phenomenon have been made for a long time.

Back in the 18th century the outstanding French scientist Dominique Francois 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 seemed the most probable.

GAS DISCHARGE. In 1955, Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa presents a report “On the nature of ball lightning”. In that work, he tries to explain the very birth of ball lightning, and many of its unusual features, by the occurrence of short-wave electromagnetic oscillations between thunderclouds and the earth's surface. The scientist believed that ball lightning is a gas discharge moving along the lines of force of a standing electromagnetic
waves between clouds and earth. It does not sound very clear, but we are dealing with a very complex physical phenomenon. However, even such a genius as Kapitsa could not explain the nature of short-wave oscillations that provoke the appearance of a “hellish ball”. The assumption of the scientist formed the basis of a whole direction, which continues to develop to this day.

PLASMA CLOCK. According to the outstanding scientist Igor Stakhanov (he was called “a 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, reassuming its original form. However, experiments to create a man-made bunch of ions were unsuccessful.

ANTIMATTER. The above hypotheses are quite working, and research is ongoing on their basis. However, it is worth giving examples of a more daring flight of thought. Thus, the American astronaut Jeffrey Shears Ashby suggested that ball lightning is born during the annihilation (mutual destruction with the release of a huge amount of energy) of antimatter particles that enter the atmosphere from space.

CREATE LIGHTNING

To create ball lightning in the laboratory is an old and not yet fully realized dream of many scientists.

EXPERIENCES OF TESLA. The first attempts in this direction at the beginning of the 20th century were made by the brilliant Nikola Tesla. Unfortunately, there are no reliable descriptions of either the experiments themselves or the results obtained. In his working notes there is information that under certain conditions he managed to “ignite” a gas discharge, which looked like a luminous spherical ball. Tesla allegedly could hold these mysterious balls in his hands and even throw them around. However, Tesla's activity has always been shrouded in an eagle of mystery and riddles. So it is not possible to understand where the truth and fiction are in the story of hand-held fireballs.

WHITE CLOTS. In 2013, the US Air Force Academy (Colorado) managed to create bright balls by exposing a special solution to powerful electrical discharges. Strange objects were able to exist for almost half a second. The scientists cautiously chose to call them plasmoids rather than fireballs. But they expect that the experiment will bring them closer to the solution.

Plasmoid. The bright white ball existed for only half a second.

UNEXPECTED EXPLANATION

At the end of the XX century. A new method of diagnosis and treatment has appeared - transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Its essence is that by exposing a part of the brain to a focused strong magnetic field, it is possible to make nerve cells (neurons) react as if they received a signal through the nervous system.

So you can cause hallucinations in the form of fiery disks. By shifting the point of influence on the brain, the disk can be made to move (as perceived by the subject). Austrian scientists Joseph Peer and Alexander Kendl suggested that during thunderstorms, powerful magnetic fields can arise for a moment, which provoke such visions. Yes, this is a unique combination of circumstances, but they rarely see ball lightning. Scientists note that there are more chances if a person is in a building, an airplane (statistics confirm this). The hypothesis can only explain part of the observations: encounters with lightning that ended in burns and deaths remain unsolved.

FIVE BRIGHT CASES

Messages about meetings with fireballs come 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 Kirovohrad region. He did not touch people, but all the office equipment burned down. In science and popular science literature, a certain set of the most famous collisions of man and ball lightning has 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 pews, smashed windows and filled the church with sulfur-scented smoke. In the process, four people died. The “guilty ones” were soon found - they were declared two peasants who allowed themselves to be thrown into cards during a sermon.

1753. Georg Richman, a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, conducts research on atmospheric electricity. Suddenly, a bluish-orange orb appears and hits the scientist in the face with a bang. The scientist is killed, his assistant is stunned. A small crimson spot was found on Richman's forehead, his jacket was burned, his shoes were torn. The story is familiar to everyone who studied in the Soviet era: not a single physics textbook of that time could do without a description of Richman's death.

1944. In Uppsala (Sweden), ball lightning passed through a window pane (a hole about 5 cm in diameter was left at the penetration site). The phenomenon was observed not only by people who were on the spot: the system for tracking lightning discharges 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. He, crackling, chaotically moved in space. One climber died from touching the ball. The rest received multiple burns. The case became known after publication in the journal "Technology - Youth". Now, not a single forum of UFO fans, 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 which Chinese scientists studied ordinary lightning. The devices managed to fix the glow with a length of 1.64 seconds. and get detailed spectra. Unlike the spectrum of ordinary lightning (nitrogen lines are present 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 weighty arguments in their favor.

Mystery. This is how they depicted a meeting with ball lightning in the 19th century.

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Description

A plasma ball is a large glass ball filled with rarefied gas in which plasma beams are formed. The small glass ball inside the large one is the central electrode. The plasma is formed in the form of thin beams flowing from the central electrode to the walls of the outer ball, producing magnificent lighting effects. The plasma ball, when turned on, creates a lot of colored lightning inside the glass sphere, scattering in all directions from the center. When you bring your finger to the surface of the plasma ball, lightning merges into one powerful stream, turning into touches. Also, some models have an additional mode of operation - light music, when the ball forms lightning to the beat of the music, creating an amazing light show. You can learn more about each model and watch a video of the operation of plasma balls in ours.

Equipment

plasma ball - 1 pc.,
power adapter - 1 pc.

Installation

Place the plasma ball on a horizontal surface, connect the adapter to the base, plug the adapter into a power outlet.

Working mode

The normal mode of operation of the plasma ball. A high voltage is applied to the electrode located in the center of the container with a mixture of gases. An ionized environment is created, lightning breaks through the electrode, which glow brightly throughout the entire operation and react to touch.

AUDIO (Alive models!)

In this mode, the plasma ball glows in time when it “hears” loud music or bass, thereby creating a beautiful and unusual backlight. Inside the plasma ball there is a built-in sensor that responds to low frequencies. You do not need to connect it to radio equipment.

The plasma ball is off.

Precautions for use

To avoid damage, do not turn on the plasma ball near other electrical devices that are closer than half a meter away;
Handle the plasma ball with care - the glass sphere and plastic parts are fragile, not allowing any mechanical impact;
Keep water out of the plasma ball;
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In cases of pollution. A dry, clean cloth may be used to clean the plasma ball.

Attention

When you touch the plasma ball with your hand, you may feel warmth and a slight tingling sensation - this is not dangerous and is normal and depends on the environment in which the plasma ball is used. You can choose and buy a plasma ball in the "" section of our website.

The first documentary references to ball lightning are found in the chronicles of the time of the Roman Empire.

In Russia, this phenomenon was evidenced by a manuscript dated 1663, which speaks of a fire that descended to the ground, which “rolled” after people running away from it, did not burn anything, and eventually rose back to heaven. In legends and myths, ball lightning is represented as a monster with eyes burning with fire.

How she looks like?

Those who have seen ball lightning describe it as a luminous ball that can float in the air in any direction, making a slight crackle. The color of the ball can be any - orange, blue, red, white. The appearance of lightning has nothing to do with sources of electrical energy.

Ball lightning can enter a room through a hole smaller than its diameter; sometimes the ball "sticks" to the wires and moves along them. The flow of light from lightning is similar to the light from an electric lamp. The fireball lives for no more than ten seconds, after which it may explode or suddenly go out.

It is almost impossible to obtain ball lightning in the laboratory, and the researchers rely mainly on eyewitness accounts in their work. But few of the witnesses could see the very moment of the birth of lightning. Scientists believe that ball lightning can occur at the fork.

Although often eyewitnesses claim that the ball appears from the electrical panel, telephone, socket. One thing is certain: ball lightning is formed where electric charges accumulate, which cannot be neutralized.

Where does she come from?

There are about four hundred theories that one way or another explain the origin of ball lightning, but so far none of them has received one hundred percent confirmation. Let's take a look at the most common one. To understand the principle of the appearance of ball lightning, you need to remember how the formation of ordinary, linear lightning begins.

Due to the high electric field strength, a channel of highly ionized air appears in the cloud. Its tip in leaps of several tens of meters, with a change in direction of movement, moves towards the ground. This is how a broken electrically conductive channel is created, and through it, with thunder and glow, the main part of the charge is transferred from the earth to the cloud.

The vortex component of the electromagnetic field, which is created at the initial point of the charge movement and at each break in the trajectory, breaks away from the general field and begins an independent life.

If there is a lot of energy in this electromagnetic vortex, it ionizes the air with the formation of plasma. This plasma forms an outer shell that traps the electromagnetic vortex. In physics, this is called a "soliton" or "solitary wave." The conditions for its short existence are the nonlinearity and dispersion of the plasma. It is this soliton that is ball lightning.

What can she do?

Ball lightning, depending on the critical frequency of the plasma shell, can heat the human body, surrounding objects (especially metal) and water.

Many witnesses tell how, due to ball lightning, jewelry “evaporated”, computers and other electrical appliances were damaged. Ball lightning can have a hypnotic effect on a person.

What to do?

If you have witnessed the appearance of ball lightning, do not panic. Move metal objects and electrical appliances away from you, do not make phone calls, turn off the TV. Try not to touch clothes made of synthetic materials.

Slowly approaching the window, open the window, and then smoothly move away from the lightning and from the window. If you are wearing synthetics, try not to move. A person struck by ball lightning needs to call an ambulance.

Ball lightning

Ball lightning- a luminous ball floating in the air, a uniquely rare natural phenomenon, a unified physical theory of the occurrence and flow of which has not yet been presented. There are about 400 theories explaining the phenomenon, but none of them has received absolute recognition in the academic environment. Under laboratory conditions, similar, but short-term phenomena have been obtained in several different ways, but the question of the unique nature of ball lightning remains open. As of the end of the 20th century, not a single experimental stand was created on which this natural phenomenon would be artificially reproduced in accordance with the descriptions of eyewitnesses of ball lightning.

It is widely believed that ball lightning is a phenomenon of electrical origin, of natural nature, that is, it is a special type of lightning that exists for a long time and has the shape of a ball that can move along an unpredictable, sometimes surprising trajectory for eyewitnesses.

Traditionally, the reliability of many ball lightning eyewitness accounts remains in doubt, including:

by the very fact of observing at least some phenomenon;
the fact of observing ball lightning, and not some other phenomenon;
individual details given in the eyewitness account of the phenomenon.

Doubts about the reliability of many testimonies complicate the study of the phenomenon, and also create grounds for the emergence of various speculative sensational materials allegedly related to this phenomenon.

Ball lightning usually appears in thunderstorm, stormy weather; often, but not necessarily, along with regular lightning. But there is a lot of evidence of its observation in sunny weather. Most often, it seems to “leave” the conductor or is generated by ordinary lightning, sometimes it descends from the clouds, in rare cases it suddenly appears in the air or, as eyewitnesses report, it can come out of some object (tree, pillar).

Due to the fact that the appearance of ball lightning as a natural phenomenon is rare, and attempts to artificially reproduce it on the scale of a natural phenomenon fail, the main material for the study of ball lightning is the evidence of casual eyewitnesses unprepared for observations, nevertheless, some evidence describes in great detail ball lightning and the reliability of these materials is beyond doubt. In some cases, contemporary eyewitnesses have photographed and/or filmed the phenomenon.

Observation history

Stories about observations of ball lightning have been known for two thousand years. In the first half of the 19th century, the French physicist, astronomer and naturalist F. Arago, perhaps the first in the history of civilization, collected and systematized all evidence of the appearance of ball lightning known at that time. In his book, 30 cases of observation of ball lightning were described. The statistics are small, and it is not surprising that many physicists of the 19th century, including Kelvin and Faraday, were inclined during their lifetime to believe that this was either an optical illusion or a phenomenon of a completely different, non-electrical nature. However, the number of cases, the detail of the description of the phenomenon and the reliability of the evidence increased, which attracted the attention of scientists, including prominent physicists.

In the late 1940s P. L. Kapitsa worked on the explanation of ball lightning.

A great contribution to the work on the observation and description of ball lightning was made by the Soviet scientist I.P. Stakhanov, who, together with S.L. Lopatnikov, in the journal Knowledge is Power in the 1970s. published an article on ball lightning. At the end of this article, he attached a questionnaire and asked eyewitnesses to send him their detailed recollections of this phenomenon. As a result, he accumulated extensive statistics - more than a thousand cases, which allowed him to generalize some of the properties of ball lightning and offer his theoretical model of ball lightning.

Historical evidence

Thunderstorm at Widecombe Moor
On October 21, 1638, lightning appeared during a thunderstorm in the church of the village of Wydecombe Moor, Devon, England. Eyewitnesses said that a huge fireball about two and a half meters across flew into the church. He knocked out several large stones and wooden beams from the walls of the church. Then the ball allegedly broke the benches, broke many windows and filled the room with thick dark smoke with the smell of sulfur. Then it split in half; the first ball flew out, breaking another window, the second disappeared somewhere inside the church. As a result, 4 people died and 60 were injured. The phenomenon was explained by the "coming of the devil", or "hell fire" and blamed for everything on two people who dared to play cards during the sermon.

Incident aboard the Catherine & Marie
In December 1726, some British newspapers printed an extract from a letter from a certain John Howell, who was on board the sloop Catherine and Mary. “On August 29, we were walking along the bay off the coast of Florida, when suddenly a ball flew out of a part of the ship. He smashed our mast into 10,000 pieces, if that were even possible, and blew the beam to pieces. Also, the ball pulled out three boards from the side skin, from the underwater one and three from the deck; killed one man, injured the hand of another, and if it were not for the heavy rains, then our sails would have been simply destroyed by fire.

Incident aboard the Montag
The impressive size of the lightning is reported from the words of the ship's doctor Gregory in 1749. Admiral Chambers, aboard the Montag, went up on deck around noon to measure the ship's coordinates. He spotted a fairly large blue fireball about three miles away. The order was immediately given to lower the topsails, but the ball was moving very fast, and before it could change course, it flew up almost vertically and, being no more than forty or fifty yards above the rig, disappeared with a powerful explosion, which is described as a simultaneous volley of a thousand guns. The top of the mainmast was destroyed. Five people were knocked down, one of them received multiple bruises. The ball left behind a strong smell of sulfur; before the explosion, its value reached the size of a millstone.

Death of Georg Richmann
In 1753, Georg Richmann, a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, died from a ball lightning strike. He invented a device for studying atmospheric electricity, so when at the next meeting he heard that a thunderstorm was coming, he urgently went home with an engraver to capture the phenomenon. During the experiment, a bluish-orange ball flew out of the device and hit the scientist right in the forehead. There was a deafening roar, similar to the shot of a gun. Richman fell dead, and the engraver was stunned and knocked down. He later described what happened. A small dark crimson speck remained on the scientist's forehead, his clothes were scorched, his shoes were torn. The doorposts shattered into splinters, and the door itself was blown off its hinges. Later, M. V. Lomonosov personally inspected the scene.

The Warren Hastings incident
A British publication reported that in 1809 the Warren Hastings was "attacked by three balls of fire" during a storm. The crew saw one of them go down and kill a man on deck. The one who decided to take the body was hit by the second ball; he was knocked down and had minor burns on his body. The third ball killed another person. The crew noted that after the incident, there was a disgusting smell of sulfur above the deck.

Remarque in the literature of 1864
In the 1864 edition of A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer discusses "ball lightning". In his description, lightning appears as a slowly moving fireball of explosive gas, which sometimes descends to the earth and moves along its surface. It is also noted that the balls can split into smaller balls and explode "like a cannon shot."

Description in the book Lightning and Glow by Wilfried de Fontvieille
A book by a French author reports about 150 ball lightning encounters: “Apparently, ball lightning is strongly attracted to metal objects, so they often end up near balcony railings, water and gas pipes. They do not have a specific color, their shade may be different, for example, in Köthen in the Duchy of Anhalt, lightning was green. M. Colon, Vice-President of the Geological Society of Paris, saw the ball slowly descend along the bark of a tree. Touching the surface of the ground, he jumped and disappeared without an explosion. On September 10, 1845, in the Correze Valley, lightning flew into the kitchen of one of the houses in the village of Salagnac. The ball rolled through the entire room without causing any damage to the people there. When he reached the barn bordering the kitchen, he suddenly exploded and killed a pig accidentally locked there. The animal was not familiar with the wonders of thunder and lightning, so it dared to smell in the most obscene and inappropriate way. Lightning does not move very fast: some have even seen them stop, but this does not make the balls less destructive. Lightning that flew into the church of the city of Stralsund, during the explosion, threw out several small balls, which also exploded like artillery shells.

Case from the life of Nicholas II
The last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, in the presence of his grandfather Alexander II, observed a phenomenon that he called a "ball of fire". He recalled: “When my parents were away, my grandfather and I performed the rite of the all-night vigil in the Alexandria Church. There was a strong thunderstorm; it seemed that lightning, following one after another, was ready to shake the church and the whole world right to the ground. It suddenly became completely dark when a gust of wind opened the gates of the church and put out the candles in front of the iconostasis. There was more thunder than usual, and I saw a fireball fly through the window. The ball (it was lightning) circled on the floor, flew past the candelabra and flew out through the door into the park. My heart sank with fear and I looked at my grandfather - but his face was completely calm. He crossed himself with the same calmness as when lightning flew past us. Then I thought that to be frightened like me is inappropriate and unmanly ... After the ball flew out, I again looked at my grandfather. He smiled slightly and nodded at me. My fear disappeared and I was never afraid of a thunderstorm again.

A story from the life of Aleister Crowley
The famous British occultist Aleister Crowley spoke of what he called "ball-shaped electricity" and which he observed in 1916 during a thunderstorm on Pasconee Lake in New Hampshire. He took refuge in a small country house when “I noticed in silent astonishment that at a distance of six inches from my right knee a dazzling ball of electric fire three to six inches in diameter had stopped. I looked at him, and he suddenly exploded with a sharp sound that could not be confused with what was rampant outside: the noise of a thunderstorm, the sound of hail, or streams of water and crackling wood. My hand was closest to the ball and it only felt a slight impact."

Other evidence

During World War II, submariners repeatedly and consistently reported small fireballs occurring in the confined space of a submarine. They appeared when the battery was turned on, turned off, or incorrectly turned on, or in the event of a disconnection or incorrect connection of highly inductive electric motors. Attempts to reproduce the phenomenon using the submarine's spare battery ended in failure and explosion.

On August 6, 1944, in the Swedish city of Uppsala, ball lightning passed through a closed window, leaving behind a round hole about 5 cm in diameter. The phenomenon was not only observed by local residents, but the lightning tracking system of Uppsala University, which is located in the department of electricity and lightning, also worked.

In 1954, the physicist Domokos Tar observed lightning in a severe thunderstorm. He described what he saw in sufficient detail. “It happened on Margaret Island on the Danube. It was somewhere between 25-27 degrees Celsius, the sky quickly covered with clouds and a strong thunderstorm began. Nearby there was nothing to hide, there was only a lone bush nearby, which was bent by the wind to the ground. Suddenly, about 50 meters away from me, lightning struck the ground. It was a very bright channel 25-30 cm in diameter, it was exactly perpendicular to the surface of the earth. It was dark for about two seconds, and then at a height of 1.2 m a beautiful ball with a diameter of 30-40 cm appeared. It appeared at a distance of 2.5 m from the lightning strike, so this strike was right in the middle between the ball and bush. The ball sparkled like a small sun and rotated counterclockwise. The axis of rotation was parallel to the ground and perpendicular to the bush-hit-ball line. The ball also had one or two red curls, but not so bright, they disappeared after a fraction of a second (~0.3 s). The ball itself slowly moved horizontally along the same line from the bush. Its colors were clear, and the brightness itself was constant over the entire surface. There was no more rotation, the movement took place at a constant height and at a constant speed. I didn't notice any size changes. About three more seconds passed - the ball disappeared abruptly, and completely silently, although due to the noise of the thunderstorm I could not hear it. The author himself suggests that the temperature difference inside and outside the channel of ordinary lightning with the help of a gust of wind formed a kind of vortex ring, from which the observed ball lightning was then formed.

On July 10, 2011, in the Czech city of Liberec, ball lightning appeared in the control building of the city's emergency services. A ball with a two-meter tail jumped to the ceiling right out of the window, fell to the floor, bounced again to the ceiling, flew 2-3 meters, and then fell to the floor and disappeared. This frightened the employees, who smelled burnt wiring and believed that a fire had started. All computers hung (but did not break), communication equipment was out of order for the night until it was repaired. In addition, one monitor was destroyed.

On August 4, 2012, ball lightning frightened a villager in the Pruzhany district of the Brest region. According to the newspaper "Rayonnyya Budni", ball lightning flew into the house during a thunderstorm. Moreover, as the hostess of the house, Nadezhda Vladimirovna Ostapuk, told the publication, the windows and doors in the house were closed and the woman could not understand how the fireball entered the room. Luckily, the woman figured out that she shouldn't make any sudden movements, and just stayed where she was, watching the lightning. Ball lightning flew over her head and discharged into the electrical wiring on the wall. As a result of an unusual natural phenomenon, no one was injured, only the interior decoration of the room was damaged, the newspaper reports.

Artificial reproduction of the phenomenon

Review of approaches for artificial reproduction of ball lightning

Since there is a clear connection in the appearance of ball lightning with other manifestations of atmospheric electricity (for example, ordinary lightning), most of the experiments were carried out according to the following scheme: a gas discharge was created (and the glow of a gas discharge is a well-known thing), and then conditions were sought when the luminous discharge could would exist in the form of a spherical body. But researchers have only short-term gas discharges of a spherical shape, living for a maximum of a few seconds, which does not correspond to eyewitness accounts of natural ball lightning.

List of artificially reproduced ball lightning claims

Several claims have been made about the production of ball lightning in laboratories, but in general there has been a skeptical attitude towards these statements in the academic environment. The question remains open: "Are the phenomena observed in laboratory conditions identical to the natural phenomenon of ball lightning"?

The first detailed studies of a glowing electrodeless discharge were carried out only in 1942 by the Soviet electrical engineer Babat: he managed to obtain a spherical gas discharge inside a low pressure chamber for a few seconds.

Kapitsa was able to obtain a spherical gas discharge at atmospheric pressure in a helium medium. Additives of various organic compounds changed the brightness and color of the glow.

Theoretical explanations of the phenomenon

In our age, when physicists know what happened in the first seconds of the existence of the Universe, and what is happening in black holes that have not yet been discovered, we still have to admit with surprise that the main elements of antiquity - air and water - still remain a mystery to us.

I.P. Stakhanov

Most theories agree that the reason for the formation of any ball lightning is associated with the passage of gases through a region with a large difference in electrical potentials, which causes the ionization of these gases and their compression into a ball.

Experimental verification of existing theories is difficult. Even if we count only the assumptions published in serious scientific journals, the number of theoretical models that describe the phenomenon and answer these questions with varying degrees of success is quite large.

Classification of theories

On the basis of the location of the energy source that supports the existence of ball lightning, theories can be divided into two classes: those suggesting an external source, and theories that consider that the source is inside the ball lightning.

Review of existing theories

The following theory assumes that ball lightning is heavy positive and negative air ions formed during an ordinary lightning strike, the recombination of which is prevented by their hydrolysis. Under the influence of electric forces, they gather into a ball and can coexist for quite a long time until their water “fur coat” collapses. This also explains the fact that the different color of ball lightning and its direct dependence on the time of existence of the ball lightning itself - the rate of destruction of water "fur coats" and the beginning of the process of avalanche recombination.

Literature

Books and reports on ball lightning

Stakhanov I.P. On the physical nature of ball lightning. - Moscow: (Atomizdat, Energoatomizdat, Scientific World), (1979, 1985, 1996). - 240 s.
S. Singer The nature of ball lightning. Per. from English. M.: Mir, 1973, 239 p.
Imyanitov I. M., Tikhiy D. Ya. Beyond the laws of science. Moscow: Atomizdat, 1980
Grigoriev A. I. Ball lightning. Yaroslavl: YarSU, 2006. 200 p.
Lisitsa M. P., Valakh M. Ya. Interesting optics. Atmospheric and space optics. Kiev: Logos, 2002, 256 p.
Brand W. Der Kugelblitz. Hamburg, Henri Grand, 1923
Stakhanov I.P. On the physical nature of ball lightning M.: Energoatomizdat, 1985, 208 p.
Kunin V. N. Ball lightning at the experimental site. Vladimir: Vladimir State University, 2000, 84 p.

Articles in magazines

Torchigin V. P., Torchigin A. V. Ball lightning as a concentrate of light. Chemistry and Life, 2003, No. 1, 47-49.
Barry J. Ball lightning. Bead lightning. Per. from English. M.: Mir, 1983, 228 p.
Shabanov G.D., Sokolovsky B.Yu.// Plasma Physics Reports. 2005. V31. No. 6. P512.
Shabanov G.D.// Technical Physics Letters. 2002. V28. No. 2. P164.

Ball lightning in fiction

Russell, Eric Frank"Sinister barrier" 1939

Notes

I. Stakhanov "Physicist who knew more about ball lightning"
Such a Russian variant of the name is listed in the list of UK telephone codes. There are also variants of Widecomb-in-the-Moor and direct dubbing of the original English Widecomb-in-the-Moor - Widecomb-in-the-Moor
Conductor from Kazan saved passengers from ball lightning
Ball lightning scared a villager in the Brest region [email protected]
K. L. Corum, J. F. Corum “Experiments on the creation of ball lightning using a high-frequency discharge and electrochemical fractal clusters”//UFN, 1990, v.160, issue 4.
A. I. Egorova, S. I. Stepanova and G. D. Shabanova, Demonstration of ball lightning in the laboratory, UFN, vol. 174, issue 1, pp. 107-109, (2004)
P. L. Kapitsa On the nature of ball lightning DAN USSR 1955. Volume 101, No. 2, pp. 245-248.
B.M. Smirnov, Physics Reports, 224 (1993) 151, Smirnov B.M. Physics of ball lightning // UFN, 1990, v.160. issue 4. p.1-45
D. J. Turner, Physics Reports 293 (1998) 1
E.A. Manykin, M.I. Ozhovan, P.P. Poluektov. Condensed Rydberg matter. Nature, No. 1 (1025), 22-30 (2001). http://www.fidel-kastro.ru/nature/vivovoco.nns.ru/VV/JOURNAL/NATURE/01_01/RIDBERG.HTM
A. I. Klimov, D. M. Melnichenko, N. N. Sukovatkin “LONG-LIVING ENERGY-INTENSIVE EXCITED FORMATIONS AND PLASMOIDS IN LIQUID NITROGEN”
Segev M.G. Phys. Today, 51 (8) (1998), 42
"V. P. Torchigin, 2003. On the nature of ball lightning. DAN, vol. 389, no. 3, pp. 41-44.

Atmospheric electricity sometimes manifests itself in a very peculiar way, and the most impressive of its manifestations should be called electric discharges - lightning. Every second, 100 lightning flashes in the skies above the Earth! The most typical of them are linear lightning, which look like a broken line and are called a spark discharge.

Even in ancient times, the so-called fires of St. Elmo, which appear before a thunderstorm on the tops of tower spiers and weathervanes, attracted attention. These lights are similar to linear lightning and are considered one of the varieties of electrical discharge in the air, called a glow discharge.

Most often, fireballs are yellow and white, but other colors are also known. Eyewitnesses describe fireballs of red, black and blue colors.

Scientists already know quite a lot about the nature of lightning, although in general both spark and glow discharges remain highly mysterious phenomena. There is no reliable information about how the conditions for the discharge arise in thunderclouds and what they are.

The mysterious companion of thunderstorms sometimes becomes ball lightning, which is a completely unique type of electric discharge. A hundred years ago, ball lightning was considered the fruit of an agitated fantasy, believing that the existence of such a phenomenon is contrary to the laws of nature.

In appearance, an unusual lightning resembles a large (the size of a soccer ball) bright headlight of a spherical or egg-shaped shape. During a thunderstorm, this “headlight” hangs motionless or moves in the air.

The behavior of ball lightning is extremely surprising. It is often born when an ordinary spark discharge strikes power lines or into the ground, and sometimes it is born spontaneously in a linear lightning channel.

Most often, this ball rolls slowly and silently through the air or on the surface of the soil, writing out a confused, chaotic trajectory. The movement can be directed up, down, in any other direction, including against the wind. The average speed of ball lightning is 1-10 m/s.

When the movement of lightning slows down or stops, it causes destruction in the places of its contact with surrounding objects. Ball lightning can pass through a metal sheet without burning it, or penetrate glass, melting a small hole in it.

The amazing ball has an inexplicable attraction to human structures, which it can penetrate even through small cracks. It was possible to observe more than once how large balls with a diameter of 40 cm seeped (literally so!) into small holes, reaching only a few millimeters in diameter, and then restored their shape. It happens that the ball sparks from a collision with other objects and even breaks up into several small balls.

We cannot explain the riddle of ball lightning because we do not understand where ordinary lightning comes from. According to the precipitation model, the electric discharge occurs due to the separation of charges in the clouds, the upper parts of the clouds are positively charged due to the movement of the drops.

The color of lightning, according to eyewitnesses, can change, but in 60% of cases it is constant and lies in the area of "hot" colors - red, yellow, orange.

Lightning disappears by collapsing or exploding. Usually this clap is not loud, accompanied by a slight crackle. Physicists see the cause of the explosion in the cooling of the ball to a certain critical temperature.

In 30% of cases, lightning slowly fades away, losing the energy that feeds it. In 15% of cases, the opposite picture is observed. Zones of instability appear inside the substance of the ball, as a result of which the ball breaks up into parts that go out in the same way as ordinary fire sparks. The life time of medium-sized balls (30-40 cm) is about 1 minute. Small balls with a diameter of less than 10 cm live 10 seconds or a little longer. Just as short-lived are the occasionally observed giants, reaching 100 cm in diameter.

However, dimensions do not always determine the lifetime of lightning. As the calculations of physicists have shown, the density of the matter of lightning is of much greater importance. The most stable and long-lived balls have a density that is approximately the same as the density of air, that is, 2 mg / cm3.

The causes of the mysterious lightning are unknown, our knowledge of the nature of this phenomenon is still negligible. Only relatively recently, under laboratory conditions, it was possible to obtain electric discharges that remotely resemble ball lightning in their properties. Today there are two hypotheses explaining its origin. Both of them touch upon the question of the source of lightning energy.

The convection model explains why clouds form multiple charged layers. These layers arise during the continuous mixing of air masses with opposite charges.

The glow of ionized gases in the spherical body of lightning must be supported by a large amount of energy (about 100 kJ). It is not clear where the small object gets it from. According to one version, lightning has its own energy reserves inside.

Immediately after its birth, lightning becomes an independent object. The energy reserve of the ball's energy is determined by the amount of energy that was expended by linear lightning on the formation of a bunch of ions that make up the ball.

It was possible to observe more than once how large balls with a diameter of 40 cm seeped (literally!) into small holes reaching only a few millimeters in diameter, and then restored their shape.

Another hypothesis considers ball lightning as an object that depends on the energy transmitted by radio waves generated by powerful discharges of atmospheric electricity. This hypothesis was supported and developed by Academician P.L. Kapitsa. Based on the theoretical constructions of Kapitsa, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences I.P. Stakhanov suggested that the mysterious formation arises from the water. When a raindrop enters the lightning channel, its particles undergo complex changes and interact with atmospheric ions, sticking to them.

As a result, a bunch of ions appears, the existence of which can only be maintained by powerful radio waves generated by electric discharges. A change in environmental conditions (primarily temperature) entails a "burnout" of the substance of the ball. The ions are released from adhering water particles and lose their charge, becoming electrically neutral. As a result, the substance of ball lightning falls apart into pieces that people mistake for sparks.

This hypothesis is confirmed by the presence of a shell in lightning. The existence of the shell indicates that the substance inside the ball is in a special phase, that is, a specific state of aggregation.

According to experts, in many cases of UFO sightings, the phenomenon of ball lightning took place. Indeed, with its appearance and “behavior”, it strongly resembles a small UFO: it glows, moves quickly, and can fly against the wind.

An incandescent bunch of gas ions is a plasma state of matter. Therefore, ball lightning will more correctly be considered as a plasma discharge in an electromagnetic field.

In 1991, Japanese physicists I. Otsuki and H. Ofuruto, using a powerful electrovacuum generator of electromagnetic waves - a magnetron, were able to cause the appearance of such plasma discharges in the laboratory.

A characteristic feature of ball lightning is the presence of a clearly distinguishable surface that separates the substance of an object from the substance of its environment. The exact chemical composition of lightning is unknown to scientists, but it is most likely that these are ions of unstable compounds of nitrogen and oxygen. At the moment of explosion, the ions break up into their constituent elements.

Some of the artificially produced discharges looked like real fireballs. These blobs of plasma changed colors from white to red, blue and orange, and also slowly moved through the air while receiving energy from the magnetron. The success of the experiments suggests that research on the phenomenon is moving in the right direction. Apparently, the main mysteries of ball lightning will be resolved in the very near future.