A crack of lightning, a burst of heat, and suddenly a glowing sphere hangs in the sky like a craft from another world. Scientists now say this is not fantasy or folklore, but hard physics, after a growing body of peer reviewed experiments revealed that lightning and plasma can spontaneously create floating fireballs known as plasmoids.
Ball lightning has baffled witnesses for generations. During violent thunderstorms, people have reported silent glowing spheres drifting through streets, rolling along power lines, or even passing through walls. Local police and military authorities have logged hundreds of accounts each year, yet the phenomenon remained deeply mysterious because it appears randomly and vanishes within seconds.
