The spectrum of ball lightning has been discovered. It consists of neutral atomic silicon, calcium, iron, nitrogen and oxygen—in contrast with mainly ionized nitrogen emission lines in the spectrum of the parent lightning.
I've got my idea -- that they are space-chilled pieces of debris from supernova explosions that strike the earth's atmosphere at great speed and are heated to great temperatures through frictional drag. Silicon, calcium, and iron are among the later and heaviest elements formed in a star as it approaches the supernova stage (and its catastrophic, fatal demise). If they are unoxidized, silicon, iron, and especially calcium react violently with the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.
Ball lightning has certainly been proposed as an explanation for some UFO sightings and on rare occasions for paranormal sightings.
As to your proposal, wouldn't that have a shooting star effect, though? Ball lighting, from what I have read, need not behave that way.A wild conjecture, but not as wild as the idea that silica or silicate would be reduced to silicon vaporized on Earth (which requires a huge amount of energy to perform) and then that it would react with atmospheric oxygen in a strongly-exothermic process. The combustion of 'vaporized silicon' would release no more energy than was necessary for reducing silica to silicon, and the heat released from the condensation of silica basically recovers the heat of vaporization of silica or reduced silicon.
Laws of thermodynamics preclude the possibility of the reversal of a process in roughly the same place and time yielding more energy than was put into the process.
To be sure, I have an extraterrestrial explanation -- but not involving any unknown processes of nature. Supernova explosions happen, and they eject huge amounts of material, some of it silicon, calcium, and iron; they are one of the few arguable sources of unoxidized silicon, calcium, and iron. Uncombined iron not a human creation (of course we have a huge iron-and-steel industry) does exist in meteorites. Calcium is extremely reactive, literally burning if it comes in contact with water. It would not last long in a terrestrial environment. Silicon is difficult to reduce, but it is common only in human artifacts typically of extremely-recent origins (electronics). Uncombined silicon and silicides have been found on Earth, but both are rare and are associated with meteorites. Silicates, in contrast, are extremely common.
