The mystery of fireballs

The nature of fireballs – glowing luminescent objects floating in the air – has been a long-lasting enigma. Scientists have recently managed to produce small fireballs inside a microwave cavity. Using synchrotron light, they demonstrated that the fireballs are a dusty plasma of charged nanoparticles with a mean size of 50 nm.

Stable fireball in a microwave cavity.

Further information:

• Nanoparticles in ball-lightning-like fireballs

• Ref. J.B. Mitchell et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 065001 (2008).