Ball lightning is really strange. Sometimes it explodes, sometimes it dies silently, sometimes it moves slowly on the ground, sometimes it jumps and walks, and sometimes it is not high on the ground ... Scientists vowed to solve this mystery many years ago, but so far spherical lightning still hangs over a mysterious aura.
According to eyewitnesses, the appearance of spherical lightning usually occurs when it thunders, and the duration can sometimes reach 1 minute. Scientists didn't believe these reports at first, and usually dismissed them as hallucinations. However, more and more people can claim to have witnessed spherical lightning. According to rough statistics, this figure has reached about 1 10,000 in recent ten years. Now, scientists finally admit that this phenomenon does exist. Journal of Natural Science A of the Royal Society 65438+ 10 disclosed the previously unreported sighting of spherical lightning: in Oregon, USA, a spherical lightning came and went like the wind, leaving a hole the size of a basketball on the screen door, and then went straight to the basement, ruthlessly destroying an old dryer; The experience of a Russian teacher is even more terrible. A spherical lightning with a diameter of 80 cm jumped back and forth over his head for more than 20 times and then disappeared quietly. It was reported in the former Soviet Union that a spherical lightning flew into a cauldron containing nearly 7,000 kilograms of water, and the water immediately boiled, and the spherical lightning stayed in the cauldron for 10 minutes before it went out. Another time, a ball of lightning the size of a football rolled down the street and didn't jump high from the road. When it touched the ground, it blew out some pits half a meter deep and one and a half meters in diameter. Finally, it crashed and the fireball went underground. Some people even suspect that the chief culprit of the Tunguska explosion in Russia at the beginning of last century was ball lightning.
It is very difficult to explain these mysterious phenomena, but scientists have been working hard. 1955, the former Soviet physicist Peter Kapicha put forward the theory that spherical lightning may be caused by electromagnetic interference effects produced in thunderstorms; 199 1 year, Japanese scientists reported in the journal nature that they observed a series of phenomena similar to spherical lightning caused by microwave interference in their experiments, and their artificial plasma "fireball" also showed some rare properties of spherical lightning, such as it can move in the opposite direction to the main airflow and pass through solid materials without being affected by it. This study provides some evidence for Kapicha's theory. 1996 Russian media reported that Veduta, an associate doctor of physics and mathematics in Russia, believed that ball lightning was like a double-layer "doll" puppet (that is, one puppet was covered with another puppet), and its body was full of electromagnetic radiation. These rays squeeze the plasma shell, so that the plasmas don't collide with each other, and the plasma shell acts like a mirror, reflecting the radiation back. Wherein the plasma is completely isolated from the outside, and the temperature can exceed the temperature of thermonuclear reaction. The scientist calculated that a white-hot "puppet" with a diameter of 60 cm contains a sphere with a diameter of 20 cm, which is freely suspended in a gas medium and can generate up to 50 MW of thermal power.
One of the mainstream theories now is the explanation of two scientists in New Zealand. In 2000, the two scientists wrote in the journal Nature that when the soil is struck by lightning, nanoparticles containing silicon will be released into the atmosphere, and the energy of lightning stroke will be stored in these nanoparticles in the form of chemical energy. When it reaches a certain high temperature, these particles will oxidize and release energy; Another theory holds that the gas ionized by lightning combines with water vapor to form a high-temperature plasma ball covered with a cold plasma shell, which is somewhat similar to the Veduta theory mentioned above.
But it is still impossible to try to convince one of these theories to explain all the stories of spherical lightning. Scientists speculate that spherical lightning may be the product of many different natural effects. According to these hypothetical functions, they simulated miniature spherical lightning in the laboratory, but compared with spherical lightning in the real world, it is not only far in size, but also has a short existence time.
Spherical lightning is not only interesting, but also contains many secrets. Once this phenomenon is solved, it may have a far-reaching impact on human life. "It is important to try to understand these events," said David Turner, a physical chemist who has studied spherical lightning for decades in Maryland, USA. He believes that uncovering the mystery of ball lightning will help to find the real reason of spontaneous human combustion and other phenomena. More scientists believe that the most direct function of studying spherical lightning is to help find efficient and clean new energy.
Recently, scientists of the Royal Society admitted in a report that spherical lightning is still a mystery in nature.
The report presents some new evidence, and scientists point out that it is not easy to explain this phenomenon. Spherical lightning can shine like a 100 watt light bulb. It has no huge energy and does not radiate heat, but it can melt the glass and enter the room through the glass window.
At present, the most popular theory is that when the time in the soil is vaporized by discharge, spherical lightning will be formed, and these time vapors will condense into fine dust, which will keep the charge when they spread in the air; Dust will form luminous spheres after oxidation. Dr. John Abrahansen of Canterbury University in New Zealand pointed out: "I believe that the mystery of spherical lightning will be introduced into the orbit of chemical reaction with extremely fine particles."
Another explanation is that the air ionized by lightning combines with water to form a hot plasma ball composed of water and ions.
However, British scientists believe that the existing theory cannot explain the mystery of spherical lightning, and spherical lightning may be the result of a series of action processes. At present, small spherical lightning can be reproduced in the laboratory, but it is much smaller and has a much shorter existence time than spherical lightning in nature.
David Thienel, a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Maryland in the United States, believes that spherical lightning can lead to the displacement of objects, which usually requires the action of additional forces. Dr Abrahamsen also believes that similar chemical processes can lead to spontaneous human combustion and unexplained combustion. Scientists hope to fully understand the formation mechanism of spherical lightning. If the spherical lightning in nature can be successfully reproduced in the laboratory, then the development of a new high-temperature chemical reaction process is expected to achieve a breakthrough.
Spherical lightning is generally a fireball with a diameter of 10-20 cm, which is red, yellow or orange. It takes about 4- 120 seconds from appearance to disappearance, and the brightness and size are almost unchanged. Ball lightning has a strange temper. It drills as soon as it sees a crack. It often drills into the room from doors and windows, chimneys and even cracks, and sometimes it can move along the wires and burn at a speed of about 2 meters per second. It usually moves in the horizontal direction, and sometimes it stays still in the air or lands slowly. Some spherical lightning can still rotate when moving, while others will bounce back. It hissed when it moved and made a loud explosion when it disappeared. The vibration energy is enough to destroy ordinary buildings. Because the air reacts chemically during the explosion, ozone and nitric oxide are generated, so there is an unpleasant smell after the ball lightning disappears.
On July 22, 1962, Yuhuangding, Taishan, was in a thunderstorm. In the thunder and lightning, a crimson fireball with a diameter of 15cm ran into the room through the closed glass seam. It fluttered indoors for 3-4 seconds at a speed of 2-3 meters per second, and then escaped from the chimney. One corner of the chimney was cut off in the explosion, and a thermos bottle in the room was shattered under the impact of air billow. On July 25th, 198 1, after a loud thunder, two rare orange fireballs suddenly roared down from the clouds. When they landed in the garden, two fireballs collided and made a loud noise. The dazzling lights make the surroundings look like daytime.
How is spherical lightning formed? A physicist in the former Soviet Union believed that spherical lightning was a bubble "blown" by lightning. During the thunderstorm, the electric field intensity of the earth increased by 1 1,000 times. It hits the water droplets and even forms a strong field of dendritic lightning around the water droplets, which makes the water droplets expand. However, this requires some foreign substance, such as a grain of dust or sand, to fall into the water droplets. When the resistance of current increases, water is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen and oxygen burn to form fireballs. If for some reason, the fireball discharges ahead of time, that is, an explosion occurs, and when the charge gradually disappears, the fireball disappears unconsciously. If the air around the fireball is still, the fireball will disappear by itself after a few seconds. It is easy to release lightning, but it is impossible to destroy it. People even shot fireballs with guns, but the fireballs didn't explode. Spherical lightning can fly because its density is close to air and it can move with the surrounding air. Therefore, it is safest to stand still when encountering spherical lightning.
The mechanism of spherical lightning is different from ordinary lightning. How is it formed? Why is it a fireball form? Where does the energy of the fireball come from? Why does spherical lightning shine for a long time (from a few seconds to a few minutes)? What is the luminous mechanism of fireballs? Why can it stay spherical and move? Why does it sometimes crack slightly and finally disappear, but sometimes it explodes deafeningly? For a long time, scientists all over the world have been looking for such a problem, which they can't understand, and various hypotheses have emerged one after another.
French scientist Ma Ji Asa believes that spherical lightning is a special compound of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, which forms around ordinary lightning and disappears after cooling.
Czerwinski, a Soviet scientist, believes that fireball is a gas mixture with strong electricity. The sphere is unstable and can explode for various reasons, but it may be weakened by discharge when it contacts the conductor under some conditions.
Some scholars in the Institute of Geomagnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Soviet Academy of Sciences believe that spherical lightning is produced when rain falls into a common lightning trough, and its molecules are covered with positive ions and negative ions, thus forming an extraordinary outer layer, that is, a special spherical shell.
According to the properties of known gases, some scholars have judged that the light brown smoke after the ball lightning disappears is nitrogen dioxide, while the quite strong fresh smell in the air is ozone. Therefore, it is speculated that spherical lightning may be formed by the rapid decomposition of ozone due to the entry of some gases into the ozone concentration area.
Many scholars believe that ball lightning is a plasma puzzle, which is a mixture of electrons and ions separated from atoms. But this kind of plasma is "cold" during thermonuclear reaction, instead of becoming extremely hot, which is basically like the gas in a fluorescent lamp and cannot be ignited. It can only be produced when gas discharges, which is how lightning in a thunderstorm discharges. Plasma clots can occur after or at the edge of ordinary lightning. In this case, spherical lightning will "steal" ordinary lightning and get the generated electricity from it.