Greased Lightning

Can we put this one to bed right now?

From BBC

It seems hard to believe that we still don’t understand what causes lightning during thunderstorms – but that’s a fact.

“Scientists are still puzzled as to what triggers a spark during a thunderstorm. The latest attempt to answer the question only adds to the intrigue.”

While many details of this process aren’t at all clear, one of the biggest mysteries is how the spark gets triggered. Since the electrical fields measured in thunderclouds don’t seem nearly big enough to induce a lightning discharge spontaneously, something is needed to “seed” it. One idea is that they are triggered by cosmic rays streaming into the atmosphere from space. A study has tried to interrogate that notion and finds that, if there’s anything in it, it’s probably not quite in the way we thought.

From Physics.org

Scientists calculated that mini black holes with a mass of about 100,000 kg may be of particular interest, since they could be candidates for dark matter. They estimated that, if dark matter is composed primarily of mini black holes and is evenly distributed throughout the galaxy, then about 40 million kg of mini black holes should pass through the Earth every year. The researchers calculated that about 400 mini black holes per year could be detectable through their strong electromagnetic emissions from their gravitationally bound matter.

And Now From Me:

Lots of lightning, which is an electromagnetic effect, is generated in the eyes of hurricanes, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and even when all you have is a…double rainbow. It’s all about that very squirrly sometimes multi-body quantum orbit of those micro black hole balls of entropy, which probably includes ball lightning.  This micro black hole ball of entropy is the random number generator for the universe, condensing water vapor, creating electromagnetic and gravitational disturbances at its surface and low energy nuclear reactions. I think quantum gravity sucks all of the energy out of the reaction at the surface of the particle, which is a good thing for us humans and creates beautiful lightning discharges.

Godspeed

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References
Copyright 2012 Stewart D. Simonson All Rights Reserved