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Great Balls of Fire

We are all familiar with the sight of lightning zigzagging across a stormy sky. Some people have had close encounters with another form of lightning, but what it is and where it comes from is still a mystery.

“I saw a great big shining light, ” said Betty Barrett.“It hurt your eyes to look at it.”Frightened, she rushed to a friend's house. “I felt foolish, ” she later said.“If I hadn't [seen] it, I guess I wouldn't have believed it either. But it was the brightest thing that l'd ever seen.”

Barrett and her friend went out to look again for the shining light. This time they saw nothing. But just as the women turned to go inside the house,something blew up.They saw an enormous flash of fire. Then, just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone. Later, the fire department checked for signs of a fire. It found nothing. Not a single blade of grass had been burned.

This happened in 1976 in Virginia. Seven years later a ball of fire entered a Russian jet. It was just four inches across. According to one report, it flew above the heads of the stunned passengers. When it reached the tail, it split in two. Then the two parts joined together again and left the plane. Mechanics later found two holes in the jet—one in the front and one in the tail.

In 1999 a Pennsylvania woman was sitting in her living room. Looking out the window, she saw the rain coming down. She heard thunder and saw lightning. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw what looked like a green ball. “It was floating about 25 to 30 feet above the street. It was about the size of a basketball.... All of a sudden, it grew brighter and larger and then burst in the air.” Two minutes later the power in her house went out.

What was going on? What were these balls of fire that seemed to come out of nowhere? And why did they disappear so quickly? No one knows for sure. But stories like these have been around for centuries.

Usually the balls come and go within a few seconds and leave without doing any harm. But they have been known to float up chimneys and explode halfway up. And, as in the case of the Russian jet, they have burned holes through things.

These weird balls of fire are known as ball lightning. For a long time scientists scoffed at ball lightning. They said it didn't exist. Ball lightning didn't obey the known laws of science. So scientists thought it had to be just a figment of people's imagination.

Besides, there were many different reports of ball lightning. Some people said the balls of fire exploded. Others claimed the balls vanished without a sound. Still others heard a hissing noise. Most people said the ball lightning floated with the wind. But some people saw it go into the wind. Some saw it slip through cracks or go up the chimney.A few even saw it go through walls.Then there was the question of color. Some people said it was green. Others said it was blue or red or yellow.

All the eyewitnesses had been startled by what they had seen. Scientists figured that affected how people “saw” things. Also, there was the time factor. The balls came and went very quickly. Most lingered just a few seconds. They never stayed long enough for anyone to study. Given this, it is no wonder that scientists responded to ball lightning stories with a sigh and, “Oh, sure. Right.”

Scientists know that the eye can play tricks. People can “see”things that are not really there. Think about what happens when you look at a flashbulb as it goes off. The flash is over in an instant. But your eye still sees a glow from the flash. In short, you still see the light after the source of the light is gone.

Is that what happens with ball lightning? Some scientists think so. Ball lightning is usually seen in a thunderstorm. Normal lightning can act just like a flashbulb. It creates an afterimage in the brain. If you focus your mind on it, the afterimage tends to float around. It looks a lot like ball lightning. Also, afterimages last about as long as ball lightning. They have the same colors and shapes. And they leave having done no damage.

So is ball lightning just an afterimage in the brain? Many of the facts suggest that it is. But there are other facts that just don't fit so neatly. An afterimage doesn't explode. It doesn't make a hissing sound. It doesn't burn holes. And it doesn't knock out the power in a house. Also, how could the passengers on the Russian jet all have the same afterimage?

Scientists don't like to admit when they're wrong. But, in this case, they have done so. Many now accept ball lightning as real. They believe most of the reports are true. But they still don't know exactly what ball lightning is. There are many theories, but none that all people accept. Some scientists think it is caused by strange gases. Others think it is linked to earthquakes. Still others think it might be caused by small nuclear reactions.

In 2000 a new theory popped up. Two scientists suggested that ball lightning might be caused by burning silicon. Silicon can be found in soil mixture. When a lightning bolt hits the ground, it produces great heat. If the soil mixture contains the right amount of silicon, the bolt will release tiny bits of silicon in the air. The bits might then form chains in the air. The chains, in turn, could create puffy clusters that float. The clusters then oxidize, or burn up. If the heat of the ball is low,it will fade away.If it is high,it will explode.

The two scientists have not yet proved their theory. So in the world of science, it remains just a theory. But the existence of ball lightning seems pretty certain. So if you ever see this kind of weird fireball, you can relax. It's not your eyes playing tricks on you. And you're not crazy.