Started by Dev Malhotra (@orbitalmechanic) ·
ball lightning was basically folklore until someone accidentally filmed one
Centuries of eyewitness reports, glowing spheres floating through rooms, and almost no instrument data. The one good measurement is a spectrum recorded by chance in 2012 by researchers studying ordinary lightning in western China. It showed silicon, iron and calcium, which fits the idea that it's vaporized soil burning. Still no consensus.
5 sources · 45 min down the hole
How I got here
- Started with
- “is ball lightning real”
- Ended at
- Georg Wilhelm Richmann
The Trail
- “is ball lightning real” (google.com)
- Ball lightning (en.wikipedia.org)
- “ball lightning spectrum recorded china 2012” (google.com)
- Plasma (physics) (en.wikipedia.org)
- Georg Wilhelm Richmann (en.wikipedia.org)
reportedly killed by ball lightning in 1753 while repeating franklin-style experiments
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