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Modern Mysteries

What is behind Norway's Hessdalen lights ?

By T.K. Randall
May 14, 2014 · Comment icon 30 comments

A lone light shines out over the snow. Image Credit: YouTube / Truthloader
The valley is home to mysterious hovering orbs of light that have been sighted for more than a century.
Particularly puzzling is the wide variety of different lights that seem to appear, including some that are the size of a car, some that flash blue and white and some that seem to zip around at high speed before fading. Some of the lights have the appearance of metallic objects, leading to speculation that they could even be extraterrestrial in nature.

A recent study in to the phenomenon however has revealed that the lights are more likely to have a geological origin. The glowing effect, far from being the product of spirits or aliens, is instead believed to be the result of air turning in to plasma. The unique properties of the valley, including copper-rich rocks on one side and iron-rich rocks on the other, provide the potential to make the whole place act like a giant battery.
With the phenomenon occurring more frequently during periods in which the Northern Lights are visible over the region, researchers have also speculated that the solar wind could be providing the necessary charge to energize the plasma.

Whether this explanation will discourage people from visiting the valley in an effort to catch a glimpse of the lights for themselves however, remains to be seen.



Source: Gizmodo | Comments (30)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #21 Posted by Astra00 10 years ago
The problem with all of these things is that people add all sorts of baloney into the observations that make it hard to study what is really happening. There are all sorts of unsubstantiated stories that often turn out to be bad observations. I've personally witnessed this at Marfa where people point to cars and claim they are the mystery lights. There might be interesting mystery lights at Marfa, but those are hard to pick out of the thousands more stories that are based on the ignorance of the observer. I could see that every, 100% of the indicated lights, was in fact a car. I could tell tha... [More]
Comment icon #22 Posted by psyche101 10 years ago
I never mentioned it but you did. If you stop to think, Remember to start again. LOL - Touche` !!
Comment icon #23 Posted by Sir Wearer of Hats 10 years ago
It's been far from satisfactorily explained in my opinion. One of the more bizarre events in the area was the unexplained and surgical upheaval of a massive volume of earth. Other strange phenomenon have been observed by locals in Hessdalen. One such phenomenon seems to be a cross between cattle mutilations and crop circles, except performed on the top layers of peat bogs. This very strange phenomenon was first discovered during the initial study. Hunters were on the trail of Deer in a inaccessible part of the valley when they came across a large section that had been sliced and removed from t... [More]
Comment icon #24 Posted by ChrLzs 10 years ago
I'll happily confess I haven't spent hours poring over it all... but what I have seen to date regarding the quality of observations of the Hessdalen phenomena, especially by those claiming to be professionally / scientifically / carefully investigating the supposedly common occurrence, are woeful. Is there very limited funding or a shortage of decent photographers around this area, or are the sightings much more rare than is usually touted? Does anyone have any links/examples of decently recorded examples? If the examples shown so far on this thread are the best... then I'd have to question th... [More]
Comment icon #25 Posted by scowl 10 years ago
The project to study the lights has been tapering off as no one has come up with good theories and there's no indication that they will. As you've seen the people interested in studying it haven't done a perfect job of collecting data and these are the people who want better equipment and more elaborate (i.e. expensive) studies. They already had been using excellent equipment including a seismograph and even a powerful laser to shoot back at the lights. They had a Geiger counter but couldn't explain how they would use it to measure the radiation of something miles away. A majority of the light... [More]
Comment icon #26 Posted by bmk1245 10 years ago
Most frustrating thing when you see dubious YT videos entering scientific papers (G.S. Paiva, C.A. Taft, J. Atamos. Sol.-Terr. Phy. 80, 336 (2012)). How THAT did got passed reviewers is beyond me... Another point, when I see remarkable results from Chinese team, who recorded ball lightning (J. Cen, P, Yuan, and S. Xue, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 035001 (2014)) and compare quality of the results above with that of B.G. Hauge, I tend to think that the teams in Hessdalen are beating around the bushes with a little progress since research started there back in 1983.
Comment icon #27 Posted by psyche101 10 years ago
It's been far from satisfactorily explained in my opinion. One of the more bizarre events in the area was the unexplained and surgical upheaval of a massive volume of earth. The two are completely unrelated. Nobody claims it is "satisfactorily" explained, just that we have a very good idea what is most likely is. A Form or several of Aerial Plasma. Ridiculous to claim that cut grass and arial lights are related anyway. The only commonality is roughly geographic location. Does not take much to excite you does it.
Comment icon #28 Posted by taniwha 10 years ago
...no one has come up with good theories and there's no indication that they will... But what of the natural battery theory? Is this as ' no good ' as all the other theories too? How so? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2632650/Has-mystery-glowing-Norwegian-orbs-solved-Expert-claims-underground-battery-creates-amazing-light-show.html
Comment icon #29 Posted by SaraT 10 years ago
I didn't realise the extent of this phenomenon, but I just have found that this exists: http://www.hessdalen.org/index_e.shtml
Comment icon #30 Posted by lightly 10 years ago
But what of the natural battery theory? Is this as ' no good ' as all the other theories too? How so? http://www.dailymail...light-show.html I like it. I'd guess it's probably the earth and atmosphere doing some electromagnetic tricks ... and somehow creating these Lights or plasma


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