Many people often see luminous circular objects in photographs. They are known as orbs or plasmoids. Some people believe that this is the reflection of light from the surfaces of surrounding objects; others believe that this is a reflection of light from dust particles floating in the air; some people even assume that these are spirits and other supernatural beings invisible to man.
This phenomenon has received little research, but Dr. Gary E. Schwartz and professor of optical sciences Catherine Cret of the University of Arizona published a study on mysterious realms in 2005.
They say that most of the orbs can be attributed to the refraction of light from a camera flash, or they are due to dust particles. However, Schwartz and Cret admit that the individual luminous spheres cannot be explained by the optical effect.
For example, the orb that appeared in the BBC documentary moved slowly and then disappeared. Schwartz and Cret write: “From the point of view of optics, it is impossible to explain such movement along an unpredictable trajectory. Nor was it caused by dust particles in the air."
This documentary was filmed with a high-tech tripod-mounted thermal imaging camera, which should have eliminated some of the factors that commonly cause spheres to appear when shooting with inexpensive cameras.
Schwartz and Cret continue: "It is illogical and irresponsible to claim that all orbs in the world are a common optical phenomenon, such as spurious reflection."
They believe that most orbs can be explained in terms of the laws of optics. But the individual anomalous orbs have yet to find an explanation.
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Spheres at the Regent Theater in Melbourne, Australia on April 14, 2012 after a Shen Yun Performing Arts concert.
The sphere next to the left horn of the bull. The most unusual thing in this photo is that the sphere appeared in front of the horn, while the falling shadow from the horn is visible on it.
The spheres often appear in photos taken in New Zealand near a settlement of the Ngati Mamoe tribe, which no longer exists.
Sometimes the spheres in the photo are caused by rain.
Some orbs are caused by flying dust.