Although people have often seen lightning in the sky, they may never have seen glowing spheres floating in the air. This phenomenon is called ball lightning. It is claimed that it can appear during a thunderstorm and suddenly disappear after a few seconds. Its color is described as blue, orange, or yellow.
Stories about ball lightning are quite old. However, when a video of a glowing sphere appears on social media, it is often circulated, labeled as ball lightning. One such video caused much discussion. Although it looked like a mysterious natural phenomenon, verification showed that the video was unreal, created using CGI (computer graphics).
Ball lightning is considered an extremely rare and mysterious atmospheric phenomenon. Reports mention the appearance of a glowing sphere during a storm. This glowing sphere can hang in the air for some time and then suddenly vanish. There are various reports regarding its color: some call it blue, others orange, and thirdly, yellow.
Some people have also reported hearing hissing sounds and smelling a strange or sharp odor in connection with ball lightning. Nevertheless, scientists still have many questions about ball lightning, and the process of its occurrence cannot be fully explained.
According to an India Today report, scientists have proposed various theories to explain ball lightning. One popular theory is related to chemical processes that occur after lightning strikes the ground. According to this hypothesis, when lightning hits the soil, some silicate minerals contained in the earth can heat up and evaporate intensely. Carbon present in the soil can separate oxygen from these silicates through a chemical reaction.
This can lead to the formation of energy-rich silicon gas. Then, silicon particles can recombine to form extremely fine nanoparticles or filaments. When these particles come into contact with oxygen in the air, a chemical reaction can release heat, causing luminescence. However, this is only one of the proposed interpretations of ball lightning and is not considered the definitive or fully proven cause of this phenomenon.
Discussions about ball lightning are not new. One of the earliest known phenomena dates back to 1638. At that time, people in an English church allegedly saw a large fireball penetrate through a window. This event is among the first reports associated with ball lightning. Nevertheless, reconstructing such centuries-old events according to modern scientific standards is difficult.
Now let's look at the video that attracted significant public attention on social media. The video shows a blue glowing sphere emerging from behind trees near railway tracks. This sphere floats in the air and moves forward, emitting bright, electric-discharge-like streaks. One such discharge collides with a nearby electrical pole, causing a strong spark.
At first glance, watching the video, it seems to capture a rare ball lightning phenomenon. However, it turned out to be something else entirely. After verification, it became known that the video was created using CGI. This video clip was made by a CGI artist named Andrey Trukhonovets, from Belarus, a country in Eastern Europe. Many agencies investigated this video, and ultimately, the ball lightning phenomenon was deemed fake. In December 2021, Trukhonovets himself stated in an interview that he created this video using Adobe After Effects.
He also mentioned that the footage of the railway tracks shown in the video was filmed near Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Thus, the video circulating on social media as real ball lightning was actually an artistic creation made with CGI.
Although there are personal testimonies and reports from people about ball lightning, not every glowing object shared on social media is real ball lightning. Especially because CGI and video editing technologies have become so advanced that a computer creation can easily be mistaken for a real event. Therefore, any glowing sphere seen in a video should not be immediately assumed to be ball lightning.
Ball lightning remains one of the interesting scientific mysteries, while many videos related to it later turn out to be hoaxes or edited. Therefore, if you see a viral video next time claiming a rare ball lightning phenomenon, you should understand that it is most likely an artist's trick.