Science

bananas

(27,509 posts) Sun Oct 14, 2012, 08:42 AM Oct 2012

Scientists uncover mystery of ball lightning

http://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/news/article/-/15109301/scientists-uncover-mystery-of-ball-lightning/

Scientists uncover mystery of ball lightning

October 13, 2012, 3:01 pm By ABC Science Online's Darren Osborne ABC

A team of Australian scientists believe they have uncovered the cause of one of nature's most bizarre phenomenon - ball lightning.

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"Ball lightning has been reported by hundreds of people, for hundreds of years and it has been a mystery," said CSIRO scientist John Lowke, lead author of a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres.

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"This is the first paper which gives a mathematical solution explaining the birth or initiation of ball lighting," Mr Lowke said.

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One aspect of ball lightning that the study did not tackle is the loud bang that can occur at the end of a display.

"About a third of the sightings end in a bang," Mr Lowke said.

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8 replies

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Scientists uncover mystery of ball lightning (Original Post) bananas Oct 2012 OP

I saw it once. Not sure about their explanation unc70 Oct 2012 #1

THANK GOD! I've lost so many pairs of underwear to this ... zbdent Oct 2012 #2

Tee hee hee libodem Oct 2012 #3

naw ... that was before ... zbdent Oct 2012 #7

uhhh bodem1955_om Oct 2012 #4

Ohhh.... Phoonzang Oct 2012 #6

Huh, so it goes out with a bang and not a whimper... Javaman Oct 2012 #5

Ball lightening is some crazy shit! libodem Oct 2012 #8

unc70

(6,114 posts)

1. I saw it once. Not sure about their explanation

Reply to bananas (Original post)

Sun Oct 14, 2012, 09:01 AM

Oct 2012

Saw it on the NC coast, sort of bouncing or floating along moving down the beach. Lasted 10-15 seconds, long enough to shout "Look at this". After the storm, we looked to see any sign of what it was along the beach, but found nothing. Have thought the silica theories as plausible given the environment where we observed it.