Saturday, March 26, 2011

Strange Lights Phenomenon - Scientific Study in Norway

I found this video very interesting - unlike most UFO videos on the internet (which are clearly hoaxes, chinese lanterns etc.), these photographs and clips were collected by scientists at a Norwegian university. Never having heard of the Hessdalen study before, my first thought was that it might also be an elaborate hoax, but I was able to track down the current university website of the project (the URL listed on the side of the observation trailer in the video is outdated).

There’s a paper out which investigated the possibility that the lights correspond to solar flare activity, but no relationship was found. This brought to mind the idea of “earthlights”… Dr. Michael Persinger coined the term “anomalous luminous phenomena” and came up with the theory that tectonic stress causes electromagnetic energy to manifest visibly somehow for short durations. Other theories proposed include the lights being caused by atmospheric electricity, anti-matter, black holes, or their being electrically charged balls of (naturally occurring) gas.

Since these phenomena have occurred elsewhere and for some time, I can see how they might have given rise to the notion of fairies, sprites, and will-o-wisps.

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