The Phenomenon of Ball Lightning
Another startling sighting - and certainly one of the most detailed and scientifically credible - comes from Professor Roger Jennison (Department of Electronics, University of Kent) concerning his experiences on board a late-night flight from New York to Washington in March 1963. He later wrote of his experiences in the November 1969 issue of Nature. Jennison states that the phenomenon occurred after the aircraft encountered a thunderstorm in which it was enveloped by a bright and audible electrical discharge. Some seconds later a glowing sphere some 20cm in diameter emerged from the pilot's cabin and passed down the aircraft's central aisle approximately 50cm from Jennison. The ball moved on a straight course the whole length of the aisle 75cm above the floor at a velocity relative to the aircraft of about 1.5 ms-1. It was blue-white in colour and its optical output amounted to about 5 to 10 Watts. Interestingly, no heat was felt when it passed close by and the limb darkening (like that of the Sun) gave it an almost solid appearance, indicating that it was optically opaque. No asymmetry could be seen in any dimension so it was impossible to determine whether or not it was spinning.
(First published in AA&ES Magazine, June 1996)
In German, ball lightning is called kugelblitz.
Professor Jennison's experience is one of the best ball lightning sightings on record. There are reports of this phenomenon going back at least to the Middle Ages, and maybe as far back as ancient Greece. Like meteorites before it, ball lightning is one of those phenomena that science has been reluctant to accept, with a few hold-outs remaining even today.
Ball lightning, or kugelblitz or boules de feu, someti...
... middle of paper ...
...ffer's analysis, however, is that he is comparing a natural phenomenon - ball lighting - with something that is supposed to be intelligently controlled - UFOs. Why shouldn't UFOs, if they are intelligently controlled, exhibit anthropomorphic characteristics such as avoiding crowds and cities? Not that they always do so - I am reminded of a UFO that appeared to the audience of a crowded outdoor theater in China, and one that appeared over Beverly Hills, not to mention several that have appeared over military bases.
What if UFOs are both a rare and a jealous phenomenon? What if there is a core of real UFO sightings that are sightings of intelligently controlled craft whose pilots try to avoid appearing before large groups of people whenever possible?
Bibliography:
http://ufos.about.com/science/ufos/library/weekly/aa041700a.htm?rnk=r2&terms=Ball+Lightning
Recently, many people believed to have witnessed via a viral video, U.F.O. unidentified flying object sighting directly above the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Israel, yet solid research quickly disproved this occurrence as another contemporary hoax. Sightings such as this one date back to June 24th, 1947, when Kenneth Arnold reportedly saw a “flying saucer” (Dash). There are many people around the world, who believe wholeheartedly in unidentified flying objects. Moreover, when Mr. Arnold made his claim of seeing a U.F.O., there were many futile arguments between believers and non-believers. Nowadays however, thanks to modern technology, people can record the alleged sighting by means such as video and still pictures.
UFOs invoke hysteria in society and cause people to believe other worldly beings are among us. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, talks about the hysteria surrounding the Salem Witch Trials. These two topics are similar because in both cases society tends to have seen things; in this case witches and UFOs/aliens, meanwhile other people didn't witness it nor have it happen to them yet, if not ever. Also, in both cases, there is a huge split between people who believe that UFOs/witches are real and people who don't believe they exist thinking that they are myths and hoaxes. The difference of these two topics is the fact that during the Witch Trials people were killed for being accused a witch meanwhile the mass hysteria surrounding UFOs
Although the Mothman legacy began nearly forty years ago on a chilly, fall night in 1966, it has since became the stuff legends are made of. It has grown into a phenomenon known all over the world by millions of curious people asking questions such as the following: What really happened? What did these people see? Has it been seen since? Nothing has sparked the world’s imagination and curiosity as has the mystery behind Point Pleasant, West Virginia’s Mothman. Was there such thing as the Mothman? The details found in all of the facts that I will show you definitely point to yes. You will agree with me after you hear about the first sightings of the Mothman, eyewitness accounts of how these sitings changed their lives, and a look at the media’s reports of the incidents that happened during this time.
On March 13, 1997, an inexplicable phenomenon took place in the sky over Phoenix, Arizona. Thousands of people witnessed the occurrence, and a few dozen even caught it on camera. The event was so astonishing that the most world-renowned news source, CNN, broadcast it on national television. Disappearing, the mind-boggling event left thousands, or even millions, in disbelief at what they had just witnessed. What was it? The world may never know.
Around June 25th, 1947 a pilot, Ken Arnold had reported strange objects in the sky while flying near Mt. Rainer, Washington. He stated that they flew like "saucers being skipped over water." This was where the term "Flying Saucers" derived from. The Roswell UFO Incident all started on the evening of July 3, 1947, Dan Wilmot and his wife were sitting on their front porch when they saw the distinct shape of a saucer flying through the sky. A few days prior to this sighting, military radar in the area was tracking an Unidentified Flying Object for four days. On Independence Day the radar indicated that the object had gone down about 30-40 miles Northwest of Roswell. A few days after the actual sighting from the Wilmot's, W.W. Brazel, the Foreman of the J.B. Foster Ranch went to check on his sheep after some intense thunderstorms the night prior. He happened to discover a very large amount of debris of an unknown metallic substance scattered throughout the field. It was also stated that he stumbled across a shallow trench in the ground that stretched hundreds of feet. Brazel would gather some of this debris to show family and friends. A few days after he would contact sheriff Wilcox of Chaves County. Once Wilcox had the information he needed, he contacted the Roswell Army Air Force Base, where Major Jessie Marcel was briefed to look int...
...e period. Others, however, remains persistent that there are real UFO’s inside the gates of Area 51 and they are trying to prevent the public from finding out. No matter what opinion you have about the activities going on inside Area 51 it will most likely never be fully known.
Electronic Fog will be the first theory discussed in this paper. Electronic fog is a theory first publicized by Bruce Gernon, and several others have claimed to witness the fog, as they call it. Generally, it is described a gray fog which causes instruments to go crazy, pilots and passengers become dizzy or unconscious, and in some cases, time warps. This is the main theory analyzed in the book Gernon co-authored with MacGregor, and in it, he recounts the descriptions of the fog as given by different people. He recounts that he had flown through a tunnel in a strange cloud that had formed a large ring around his plane, and as he exited, he felt disoriented, so he asked his father who was a good navigator to check their position. Then he saw that all the instruments were malfunctioning and the compass was slowly rotating. They exited the tunnel into a dark fog, and flew through it until it dissipated while they were over Miami Beach . He claims that apart from the instrument malfunction, and the strange doughnut cloud, the flight would have ...
There are numerous of different movies, books, and TV shows on how humans think aliens interact, look similar to, and what the media portrays aliens to be like. Occasionally, most will stumble across news articles with a variety of related headings about aliens, UFO’s, or recent known abduction stories. Every person has their own theories and or thoughts on these basic questions: do aliens exist? Could the government be covering up real life “space ships” or encounters? Countless folks have claimed to witness or have fanciful stories that have fascinated countless while several others are turned away. There are Videos, pictures and pieces of physical evidence to support nearly all of these stories. Even more alarming,
Finally, in 1997, the US military admitted to lying about the object being a weather balloon. Instead they claim that the wreckage was part of a “top-secret experiment”(Mitton 11) involving some sort of balloon. Steve MacKenzie’s response, “if the object he tracked had been a weather balloon, secret or not, his superiors would have ordered him to ignore it.”(Dudley 35)
Bouncing Ball Investigation This is an experiment to investigate bouncing balls and how they behave in different situations. Few independent variables will be changed, so the investigation is easy to manage, and the data is easier to process. The first independent variable that will be tested.
The thought of government cover-ups have been long discussed. The government has always, in the past, tried to keep any sign of aliens, whether it be pictures from space, to crashes on earth, to a low or nonexistent level. Just recently has the government been harassed to the point where they actually gave us clues to alien existence. It has in some ways been believed that the government has worked in partnership with popular movie directors, to produce alien movies to ease the thought that we may not be alone. Such movies as ôThe Arrivalö and the ever popular ôIndependence Dayö are very good examples of well convincing alien movies. If this is true, they did a good job, because statistics state that 75% of people today believe that there is some kind of intelligent life forms besides ourselves in the universe. That is very convincing compared to the 20% whom believed 25 years ago. ô New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.ö (MacGowan 261)
When I was young and saw the picture like the figure1, I think it was not real. It cannot happen in the earth. Maybe someone did Photoshop to edit and retouch the colorful colors in that picture. However, it is a natural phenomenon that happened in the earth 's atmosphere. Galileo Galilei named this phenomenon as "Aurora Borealis." I have three areas of information about auroras to advise you: what aurora borealis is, where the aurora borealis typically seen is, and comparison and contrast this information with Witch Child.
Undoubtedly, with over 10 000 cases, the sheer amount of reported UFO sightings and abductions is startling. In July 1947, an airborne object crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Rancher Mac Braezel examined the debris which appeared to be mostly metallic and plastic scraps. However, it was damaged beyond identification of its origin. He brought some of the material to his neighbours who attempted burning it, cutting it, and yet, it would not be damaged. They also tried bending it, too which it would dent momentarily before peculiarly molding back to its original form. Mac hurriedly contacted the local sheriff, who then, in disbelief, contacted two military officers to the debris field, also in dubiety, they brought some of the material they had found to the Roswell Army Air Base. Shortly thereafter, another local along with some students on an expedition, discovered a disk-shaped aircraft about two miles from the debris field, which had four small humanoid bodies scattered around its vicinity....