Bizarre Natural Phenomena Vol.20 - Strange Lights In The Sky (The Hessdalen Lights)

The X-files soundtrack is playing in my head the moment I'm typing those lines. Another post on strange natural phenomena is coming to life and smells like "Alien parfum" (some women will get the pun)... Lights up in the sky, bright lights that beam for a few moments before they go out or stay still for as long as an hour. Even their name has something out-worldly, Hessdalen lights, a mysterious, unexplained phenomenon occurring in the Hessdalen valley of central Norway. 

(Image source: dailymail.co.uk)

What do they look like?

These lights have different expressions making scientists assume that we might be facing different phenomena. They vary in color, motion motives, duration and area of appearance (they can seen above or below the horizon). During daylight you can view the lights as "a black object with a light on". At nights you get more variety, though. You can see a yellow or white motionless light, or sometimes slow-moving light that pauses for a few minutes before it starts moving again around the valley. The yellow light may sometimes have a red flashing light above it. There is also the possibility of seeing a white or white-blue light that flashes for no more than a minute very high in the sky, close to the mountain tops of the area (or even higher).

They are as silent as a church mouse and leave no traces on the ground like lightning does. They are cool (don't generate heat) and they have sterilizing properties as they kill microbes on the soil. Also, before their appearance there is a disturbance in the magnetic field of the area.

(Image source: thelivingmoon.com)

Give me some background history!

This phenomenon was noticed almost a century ago (in the 1940s), but during the 1980s their occurrence was that regular (10-20 times a week), that many scientists turned their eyes on the valley. Almost a decade after, in 1997-1998, the "The Triangle Project" was set as a team work of students, engineers and journalists to study the phenomenon. In 1998, the Hessdalen Automatic Measurement Station (Hessdalen AMS) was set up in area with proper equipment to monitor and record the lights. Today they are not as frequent as they used to be (they are observed up to 20 times a year), but they still remain a remarkable mystery.

(Image source: twitter.com)

What makes them?

Since Unidentified Atmospheric Phenomena (UAP) have not been thoroughly studied, further research is needed before getting to safe conclusions. For the time being the exact reason remains a mystery and there are several theories as to what produces those lights. 

One theory claims that the combustion of hydrogen, oxygen, sodium and scandium is giving off light. Another idea is that radioactivity in the area is to blame as macroscopic Coulomb crystals produce light. Air and dust in the atmosphere gets ionized when radon decays and Coulomb crystals form by these atomic ions in low temperatures. 

A third scenario supports that the morphology of the area produces plasma. The rocks of the mountains on the one side are rich in copper and on the other side in iron and zinc. Sulfur from the abandoned mine of the area leaks into the river of the valley forms a weak acid and the whole place works like a giant battery. Some say that it's the valley's electromagnetic fields that give birth to the lights. Others that it's static electricity. One last theory supports that it could be the solar wind that energizes the plasma. 

Well, the truth is out there... 

Where else can I see that thing?

Similar phenomena have been observed all over the earth. In Australia, Europe, South America and around the volcanoes in Mexico. Research has not been enough to provide secure conclusions on their causes and such phenomena have been neglected by scientists due to beliefs in supernatural and alien intervention. Nowadays, thanks to Erling P. Strand (teacher of  Datacommunication and Physics at Østfold College, Norway) more attention has been drawn over the Hessdalen lights phenomenon. For the time being, one thing is certain, that research and studying of UAP might give us a better understanding in the field of photonics with applications in real life that might bring new scientific breakthroughs.

Professor Strand is talking on "Truthloader" in this video:

References

hessdalen.org
dailymail.co.uk
journal.frontiersin.org
wikipedia.org
atlasobscura.com
unexplained-mysteries.com
hidden-truth.org
arxiv.org
gizmodo.com
mysteriousuniverse.org

Thank you for stopping by and giving this post a read. I hope you enjoyed it!

If it got your curiosity-radar on, feel free to follow me, @ruth-girl, for more fascinating phenomena!

You can also check some of the previous articles on this series:
15 - Ice Brinicles
16 - The Clone Forest
17 - A Skypunch
18 - Lake Baikal
19 - Mother-Of-Pearls Clouds
20 - The Hessdalen Lights
21 - Saint Elmo's Fire

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Until my next post,
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