11 Creepy Paranormal Phenomena Debunked By Science

6. 'Orb' UFO Sightings

What’s Really Going On: Ball Lightning

Okay, so clouds are one thing, but what about those huge balls of light that so many people report from their encounters?

Only identified in the last 50 years or so, ball lightning seems to pretty well fit the bill. Essentially, ball lightning is a sphere of static electricity that can hang in the sky for minutes at a time and is so bright that it can even be seen in daylight. The surface can even take on a metallic appearance that will look very much like the surface of a spacecraft.

Due to the electrical charge of such objects, they can also be attracted to objects such as aircraft, creating the illusion that they are “following” them. They will speed up, slow down and change direction in line with the aircraft creating the illusion of control. When the lightning eventually dissipates, it can seem to be absorbed into other objects, or can even explode into many smaller spots of light before disappearing.

Given that scientists have only managed to identify the phenomenon in the last half a century, it’s unsurprising that this strange and unfamiliar phenomenon has been taken for something otherworldly in the past.