Strange Lights in Physics

Marfa Lights

• In West Texas, USA, the town of Marfa has made a name for itself as a hot spot for viewing strange lights in the sky. It has in fact become so popular that there is a viewing platform just outside the town where visitors can observe the lights. However, a 20-night study in 2008 suggested that there is a perfectly reasonable explanation. Using advanced equipment known as sensitive spectroscopic instrumentation, a team from Texas State University were able to attribute every sighting of the strange lights to distant streetlamps, car headlamps and fires. A 2004 study by a group of physics students at the University of Texas came to the same conclusion.

Min Min Lights

• In Eastern Australia motorists have reported being chased by a bright light -- dubbed the Min Min Lights -- in Boulia Shire, but again physics has a probable explanation. In a paper on the Min Min Lights, Dr. Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland explained that the lights are in fact the result of faraway light sources being distorted by temperature changes in the air to make them appear closer than they actually are.

Brown Mountain Lights

• In North Carolina in the United States, reports suggest that strange lights have been observed as far back as the year 1200. A 1913 study concluded that the lights were the results of late-night locomotives, but scientists from the Smithsonian Institution remained unconvinced and continued to research the lights. Interest has waned in recent years, but it has been suggested that the lights could have the same explanation as the Min Min Lights.

Hessdalen Lights

• Although most occurrences of strange lights in the sky have an explanation, in Hessdalen, Norway, a team of scientists continues to search for one. Astrophysicist and radioastronomer Dr. Massimo Teodorani has suggested that they could be the result of ̶0;ionosphere activity, solar activity, cosmic rays, magnetic monopoles, mini-black holes, Rydberg matter, heated nanoparticles, piezoelectricity, [and] quantum fluctuation of the vacuum state.̶1; He goes on to explain that except for piezoelectricity, a type of electricity that builds up in some solids, they have been unable to find proof of any of these theories. Another possible explanation was posed by Marsha Adams of the International Earthlight Alliance, who suggested that the lights could be the result of commercial air traffic.