The ball of fire reportedly divided into two segments, one exiting through a window by smashing it open, the other disappearing somewhere inside the church. The ball of fire allegedly smashed the pews and many windows, and filled the church with a foul sulphurous odour and dark, thick smoke. Large stones from the church walls were hurled onto the ground and through large wooden beams. Witnesses described an 8-foot (2.4 m) ball of fire striking and entering the church, nearly destroying it. Four people died and approximately 60 suffered injuries during a severe storm. One early account reports on the Great Thunderstorm at a church in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, in England, on 21 October 1638. It is fascinating to see how closely Gervase's 12th century description matches modern reports of ball lightning." Great Thunderstorm of Widecombe-in-the-Moor Ĭontemporary woodcut of the Widecombe-in-the-Moor storm Physicist Emeritus Professor Brian Tanner and historian Giles Gasper of Durham University identified the chronicle entry as probably describing ball lightning, and noted its similarity to other accounts: "Gervase's description of a white substance coming out of the dark cloud, falling as a spinning fiery sphere and then having some horizontal motion is very similar to historic and contemporary descriptions of ball lightning. He states, "A marvellous sign descended near London", consisting of a dense and dark cloud, emitting a white substance that grew into a spherical shape under the cloud, from which a fiery globe fell towards the river. ![]() The chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury, an English monk, contains what is possibly the earliest known reference to ball lightning, dated 7 June 1195. Another study analyzed reports of 10,000 cases. Historical accounts īall lightning is a possible source of legends that describe luminous balls, such as the mythological Anchimayen from Argentinean and Chilean Mapuche culture.Īccording to statistical investigations in 1960, ball lightning had been seen by 5% of the population of the Earth. Owing to the lack of reproducible data, the existence of ball lightning as a distinct physical phenomenon remains unproven. The presumption of its existence has depended on reported public sightings, which have produced inconsistent findings. Scientists have proposed a number of hypotheses to explain reports of ball lightning over the centuries, but scientific data on ball lightning remain scarce. Laboratory experiments have produced effects that are visually similar to reports of ball lightning, but how these relate to the supposed phenomenon remains unclear. An optical spectrum of what appears to have been a ball lightning event was published in January 2014 and included a video at high frame rate. Descriptions of ball lightning appear in a variety of accounts over the centuries and have received attention from scientists. Some 19th-century reports describe balls that eventually explode and leave behind an odor of sulfur. Though usually associated with thunderstorms, the observed phenomenon is reported to last considerably longer than the split-second flash of a lightning bolt, and is a phenomenon distinct from St. At this distance, it takes about 8 minutes for sunlight to reach us – even when it is travelling at about 300 000 km/s.Ball lightning is a rare and unexplained phenomenon described as luminescent, spherical objects that vary from pea-sized to several meters in diameter. In the afternoon the Sun then seems to move lower and lower in the sky before setting in the west.Īlthough it seems small when seen at sunrise or sunset, this is only because the Sun lies about 150 million km away from us. This means that to us here on the spinning Earth, the Sun appears to rise in the east in the morning, and climb higher and higher in the sky towards midday. ![]() The Earth spins about its axis, an imaginary line that runs through the middle of the Earth between the North and South poles. This is because the Earth is spinning towards the east. About 1 300 000 Earths would fit inside the Sun!įrom Earth, the Sun looks like it moves across the sky in the daytime and appears to disappear at night. With a mass of 2 million-trillion-trillion-trillion kilograms, it weighs as much as 330 000 Earths. This huge ball of superhot gas is 1.4 million kilometres across, equal to 109 Earths set side by side. Without the Sun there would be no daylight, and our planet would simply be a dark, frozen world, with no oceans of liquid water and no life. It also gives out dangerous ultraviolet light which causes sunburn and may cause cancer.
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