A New Theory Of The Mysterious Origins Of Ball Lightning
Not Actually Ball Lightning But it might look something like this. theparadigmshifter via FlickrA mathematical theory for the origins of ball lightning, one of atmospheric science's rarest and more confounding natural phenomena. Ball lightning is one of those phenomena that is more or less universally understood to be amazing when experienced anecdotally but potentially terrifying when experienced firsthand. These glowing, often grapefruit-sized orbs of blue, electric light seem to form spontaneously, sometimes inside people's homes or around airplanes generally only last for a few seconds and aren't well understood, as it's nearly impossible to empirically study it or create it because there is no broadly accepted explanation for how it originates. But in a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, researchers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and Australia National University have put forth a mathematical theory that they think explains how ball lighting occurs and...