Science Facts

Ball Lightning

People have been reporting it for at least hundreds of years, but it has only recently been accepted by the science community. Still don't know what causes it.

Every fact about lightning is an interesting fact! Lightning is cool as hell. I wish I had some facts to add but I'll be following the comment section here

I have a lightning fact! I am an upper atmosphere physicist and lightning plays a fundamental role in the global electric circuit. Lightning sends charge upward into the ionosphere where the ionosphere distributes the charge horizontally across the globe (Carnegie curve). The return current then trickles down through fair weather regions on Earth, completing the electric circuit!

I have always appreciated how connected all the layers of the atmosphere are. The ionosphere begins between ~60-90km above the surface, yet lightning still affects it!

Roy Sullivan the human lightning rod struck seven time. His wife also got hit once. Talk about a relationship where you need separate bedrooms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan

Walter Summerford (sometimes referred to as Major Summerford) was an Alabama sportsman who was struck by lightning three times during his lifetime. According to various accounts, four years after his death, lightning struck and destroyed his gravestone in a cemetery in Columbia, Alabama.

https://funfactz.com/places/walter-summerford-lightning

It’s pretty sick that some of the most extreme high energy phenomena in the universe take place right here on earth.

Lightning could be triggered by particles coming from stars exploding somewhere in our universe: https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-causes-lightning-the-answer-keeps-getting-more-interesting-20260506/