The scientists -- Jianyong Cen, Ping Yuan, and Simin Xue -- were observing a thunderstorm when the ball lightning, 5 meters wide and lasting roughly 1.6 seconds, appeared before their eyes.

Ball lightning has been consistently reported for centuries, and yet we still know very little about it. Now, scientists have created quantum ball lightning by knotting together the magnetic spins ...

Ball lightning: A rare form of lightning consisting of a luminous ball about one foot in diameter, often reddish in color, which may move rapidly along solid objects or remain floating in mid-air.

(Phys.org)—Sightings of ball lightning have been made for centuries around the world – usually the size of a grapefruit and lasting up to twenty seconds – but no explanation of how it occurs ...

Like traditional lightning, ball lighting does come with its fair share of concerns. Depending on the size of the sphere, you could be exposed to UV radiation, causing burns.

That information primarily comes from eyewitness accounts; ball lightning is rare enough that no scientists have ever observed it in the field while they had equipment to measure its properties ...

Ball lightning is the name given to a group of phenomena that have not been completely explained, or even agreed upon. Of the two words in its name, only the first is shared by all witnesses.

Ball lightning is thought to be a ball of plasma that is formed when a bolt of lightning hits the ground and creates a molten “hot spot”. The ball can typically measure 30 centimetres across and can ...