Ball Lightning ??

Earlier this week a member posted a thread about an odd anomaly in a picture taken from one of the cameras on the Curiosity rover on Mars.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Then today I was reading an article about the same event.

Article

This article got me to thinking (a dangerous prospect to be sure!). Anyway, I started wondering if the mysterious Ball Lightning phenomenon may actually be described by Cosmic Rays actually hitting Earth. Now, bear with me here for a second...

Ball lightning has historically only been observed in the vicinity of thunderstorms. And, we know thunderstorms represent a huge localized electrical disturbance or event. Normally, Cosmic Rays are unable to make it through the Earth's atmosphere, but I wonder if a giant electrical storm might somehow open a corridor for Cosmic Rays to make it through our atmosphere?

Just before a lightning bolt strikes a column of ionized air is formed and the lightning strikes down this column. This much we know. But, I wonder if other columns of ionized particles also extend upwards out of these same clouds into our atmosphere much the same way? And these columns facilitate the phenomenon of Ball Lightning as a result of a Cosmic Ray traveling down this column.

Just a thought. This is not one of the many theories to date about how Ball Lighting occurs, but it could provide an explanation.

What are your thoughts?

It would highly depend on the energy of the cosmic ray and what it actually is. Are they X rays, Gamma rays(which would be energetic enough for ball lightning)? HOW is another story.

The mechanics of this phenomenon is interesting.

The photoelectric effect may come into play here. As the rays themselves probably wouldn't cause such a discharge to occur themselves, but perhaps something in the thunderstorm could act as a sort of P/N junction found in diode or solar power modules, whereby electrons are promoted to the conduction band by the cosmic ray in large enough numbers, and the condensation of water around this effect may create a ball like conductive case.

I hate to speculate so much on this because this is a mystery that hasn't been adequately explained and I'm just an EE tech.

I was dealing with a guy, selling him lumber to build his home when I worked for a lumber yard. He had the home shelled in, a ball of lightning came in an opening , bounced around and singed things, went into the basement and moved around turning things black, then went out an opening in the block that went to a ditch and into a detached garage through the 4 inch pvc pipe the wire and water went through into the garage, and destroyed the fusebox out there and started a fire in the garage. He was working on the steps going to the second floor and watched it wander in from what I gathered when I stopped by to see the damage. He saw it go down the basement and watched from the top of the steps as it moved around then got a glimpse out of a window opening of it being in the garage. He did not see it leave the garage through the garage door which was open and did not know where it went. The damage cost many thousand dollars to fix, he filed an insurance claim. Those balls can singe the wood quickly if they get close, but did not actually start a fire except in the garage, good thing he had a fire extinguisher at his site to put out the fire. Good thing he noticed it in the garage too, if he had gone into the basement, he might not have easily got the fire out in the garage.

The guy was explaining to me about what happened, it melted the 4 inch pipe going to the garage in the open ditch pretty much and damaged the block in that area too. He saw what it did yet could not actually truly comprehend how the thing could wander around like that almost like it was looking around. He said it went right down the middle of the stairway without touching the steps or the studs, like a living thinking energy ball.

I believed him after seeing what happened, singeing upstairs, a tad bit of singeing on the beam by the steps, singed doorway openings in the basement and a singed pipe. Kind of cool the way it went in and out the doors instead of going through the studs.

Just an interesting ball of lightning ball of lightning inspecting if he built the house up to it's expectations.

I , unfortunately , got to see a"ball lightning" up close and personal back in the old days
Lying in bed at night , window up , fan in window .
Thunderstorm like a lullaby
Ball lightning came streaking down and struck the fan
The fan , for all intents and purposes , "exploded"
I will never forget that night .

a reply to: rickymouse

The guy was explaining to me about what happened, it melted the 4 inch pipe going to the garage in the open ditch pretty much and damaged the block in that area too. He saw what it did yet could not actually truly comprehend how the thing could wander around like that almost like it was looking around. He said it went right down the middle of the stairway without touching the steps or the studs, like a living thinking energy ball.

Same sort of thing happened to My mother and her Family when she was young.
What is an overload of electricity in the atmosphere simply makes something be able to come to lower areas of the atmosphere from the upper levels where it lives.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Ball lightning has historically only been observed in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

Also trailing backwards on the ground from where an Aurora Borealis curtain touches earth when traveling.

Only time I've seen them, anyways. (Yukon Territory a long time ago.)

You can feel the curtain go through you and it does sing, for the record.

So you may be onto something as far as cosmic rays.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

A valid theory, I live in the tropics so I'm no stranger to thunderstorms, perhaps a storm combined with increased solar activity, who knows because I don't.

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Ball lightning has historically only been observed in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

Also trailing backwards on the ground from where an Aurora Borealis curtain touches earth when traveling.

Only time I've seen them, anyways. (Yukon Territory a long time ago.)

You can feel the curtain go through you and it does sing, for the record.

So you may be onto something as far as cosmic rays.

Maybe it is a sin, but I envy you for having that experience.

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Ball lightning has historically only been observed in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

Also trailing backwards on the ground from where an Aurora Borealis curtain touches earth when traveling.

Only time I've seen them, anyways. (Yukon Territory a long time ago.)

You can feel the curtain go through you and it does sing, for the record.

So you may be onto something as far as cosmic rays.

Maybe it is a sin, but I envy you for having that experience.

I was young, it was cold and we were standing on top of a tall water tower miles from anywhere.

The sky was HUGE, the stars were out and the Northern Lights that night were green and blue with little almost purple twinkles... it really looked like a huge curtain down to the folds in it.

It sounded like high-pitched wind chimes and when it went through me it felt like little electric currents dancing though everything.

Where it touched the ground sometimes a ball of white light would spin off of the bottom and race through the trees back towards where it came from.

I can honestly say it was one of the most awesome experiences of my life.

Never got to repeat it (we tried!!!) but it's on my bucket list to try to experience it again as an adult with a camera.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
What are your thoughts?

I've been considering the idea that ball lightning is actually a positron surrounded by a sphere of electrons that are creating a kind of "event horizon" around the positron.



The electrons are drawn in but get in each other's way. That's why it gives off a little POP when it gets unstable and dissipates. A lucky electron got in and kaboom.

originally posted by: Lumenari
Where it touched the ground sometimes a ball of white light would spin off of the bottom and race through the trees back towards where it came from.

You reminded me of this video posted to MUFON:
Weird Light Moves Through Trees