Light Fantastic Fantastic View and Then out of Nowhere – Exciting Than Flying Saucers

“ T IS a very nice evening in the Norwegian But for an international team that has been explanation. “I got the impression that buildings, vehicles or planes. They filmed mountains, there is a clear sky and the stars studying the mysterious lights since then, the scientists didn’t want to involve themselves, the lights, fired lasers at them, plotted their Iare around us. Everything is cold, it’s a valley harbours something much more and I think the word ‘UFO’ was the main movements using radar and carried out a Light fantastic fantastic view and then out of nowhere – exciting than flying saucers. If they can work reason,” he says. battery of tests, all of which led them to pow! It ignites.” Bjorn Gitle Hauge pauses out what it is about the place that powers such Frustrated, he gathered a few friends, conclude that this was undoubtedly a genuine and shakes his head in disbelief. “When you’ve incredible light displays, it may not only help borrowed some equipment and, with advice phenomenon. Yet they gleaned few clues as to seen it you can’t forget it. You wonder, how explain mysterious lights in other parts of the from a handful of sympathetic Norwegian its cause. Measurements of radioactivity and What makes mysterious glowing orbs appear can this happen?” world, but also open up the possibility of physicists, in 1983 he launched Project seismic activity, both of which could be a Hauge, an electrical engineer at Østfold storing energy in a radical way. It is a big if, but Hessdalen. It was the first attempt to study potential power source for the lights, drew over a Norwegian valley? We might be about University College in Halden, Norway, is the team will be heading back to Hessdalen in the lights scientifically. On the group’s first blanks, although the researchers did see a to figure it out, saysCaroline Williams recalling his first encounter, seven years ago, the summer to test out a bunch of theories on visit to the valley the following summer they small fluctuation in the area’s magnetic field with the Hessdalen phenomenon: strange, what is generating the lights. Armed with saw 188 lights, 53 of which they were confident before some sightings. hovering, flashing balls of light that have clues from recent lab studies, plus a bank of couldn’t be explained as illumination from Then, as abruptly as they had begun, the been appearing in a valley in central Norway new instruments and sensors, they could find lights disappeared and the project ground to for at least a century. that this is the year it all starts to make sense. a halt. Not until 1993, when Strand paid a visit Sometimes the lights are as big as cars and Hessdalen might have been just another to the valley, did the team discover that locals can float around for up to 2 hours. Other times UFO fad if it weren’t for Erling Strand, a had been seeing the lights all along, but had they zip down the valley before suddenly computer engineer also at Østfold University kept mum after being ridiculed by the press. AD T S fading away. Then there are the blue and white College. In 1982, he was among the hordes who ll Strand sprang back into action, organising U G flashes that come and go in the blink of an eye, made the 400-kilometre trip north from Oslo V a conference in Hessdalen in 1994. Many of and daytime sightings that look like metallic to see the lights that the Norwegian press were : LEIF the delegates had an interest in other T objects in the sky. It is little wonder that when calling UFOs. Unlike everyone else, though, mysterious atmospheric phenomena such as they started appearing up to 20 times a week he didn’t have spaceships on his mind. “I ball lightning and St Elmo’s fire, and were in the early 1980s, UFOlogists hailed the thought: a strange light hovering around in intrigued by the valley’s potential as a natural Hessdalen valley as a portal to other worlds nature – what is the physics behind that?” he lab. The meeting spawned a fresh effort to and flocked there to celebrate. says. He soon found that no one had an TOP: SAM CHIVERS; RIGH measure the lights’ size, shape and speed > 40 | NewScientist | 10 May 2014 10 May 2014 | NewScientist | 41 Does the geology of the In the past, sightings valley at Hessdalen of the lights peaked form a natural battery? at about 20 a week RARY B I analysis suggested that the orb contained particles. Paiva and Taft have used radon L objects in the sky. “People see it and think it is URE URE silicon, iron and calcium. Intriguingly, decay to make dusty plasmas and believe that T metallic but it isn’t – it is a very dense cloud S PIC S the spectrum of the Hessdalen lights also something similar could occur in Hessdalen. N that is starting to emit light,” says Hauge. AY W reveals the presence of silicon and iron, (Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial About the only thing the natural battery plus scandium, a common element in Physics, vol 72, p 1200). EVA /MARY idea doesn’t explain is what might be N E EGE, NOR EGE, L ll the region and one which happens to be Coppins accepts that radioactive decay supplying the charge to energise the plasma O C Y Y easily ionised. could generate some kind of plasma. ESSDA enough to emit visible light. In recent years, T H This seems to suggest that the Hessdalen Unfortunately, every search for radioactivity T though, the researchers have noticed that the IVERSI ROJEC P Un phenomenon is ball lightning. In Hessdalen in Hessdalen since the very first field lights are particularly impressive during D D L FO the lights aren’t linked to thunderstorms, experiments in 1984 has failed to find auroral displays. A flurry of lights in 2007 T S Ø however – they can pop up out of nowhere evidence of it; indeed background came just 30 minutes after a fantastic aurora on sunny evenings. “There must be an energy radioactivity is lower in the valley than in the borealis, says Hauge, and three years ago AUGE/ AUGE/ H E E source somewhere that has the power of a surrounding area. Even so, Hauge is searching Italian researchers filmed the lights under tl I AY G W N lightning strike,” says Hauge. “What can for radon as a priority this year, and is a green auroral sky. “And an aurora borealis BJØR electrify and drive a ball of light as big as a car placing radon detectors in an area where a means an ionised atmosphere – more charge,” EGE, NOR EGE, for several hours?” large light was seen. He admits that the team ll says Hauge. O C Perhaps there is something about the has found no large radon-emitting rocks in Y With so many new clues to go on, everyone T using radar, and added spectral analysis to valley’s shape, microclimate or geology that the area, but points to nearby mines that are involved in the project is itching to get back to “ Even when no lights are IVERSI the toolkit as a way to find out what elements allows it to generate a huge electric charge. now filled with water. Could big radon Un the mountains. It won’t be easy, of course. The D D visible, radar shows echoes L the lights were made of. The delegates also One idea, says Hauge, is that strong winds bubbles be erupting from deep in the ground, FO unpredictable arctic climate once trapped the T S resolved to search for electrical, magnetic and from unseen entities” could whip up static electricity on the picking up dust from the water’s surface as Ø researchers in a snowstorm in August, and two geological anomalies that might explain why mountains. Other research has shown that they enter the air? “The bubble comes up years ago a bank of cameras blew off a AUGE/ AUGE/ H Hessdalen was such a hotspot. wind-blown snow or sand can generate a static and… whoosh!” he says. E mountain and smashed. However, Hauge has tl I G A small group of Italian, Norwegian and temperatures to around 10,000 °C to ionise charge. “In Hessdalen we have iron in the N been working on equipment that will allow French researchers have been back to the a gas, and that requires a lot of energy. mountaintops and we have extreme winter BJØR the team to image the whole valley at once, valley each September since 2000, all working But glowing balls of light do occur naturally conditions with very high wind speed,” says Land of two halves rather than a tenth at a time, as in the past. on the mystery as a sideline to their usual on Earth, and in 2012 a team of scientists Hauge. “Maybe these winds build up charge.” The other main strand of research later this He won’t go into details apart from revealing research. Their measurements show the captured one at its birth. Jianyong Cen and Another idea is that the lights are powered year will be led by Jader Monari of the Institute Monari suggests that this unique geology its name – the “Eagle Eye” – but is clearly Hessdalen lights make no sound and seem to his colleagues at the Northwest Normal by radioactivity – specifically, the decay of of Radio Astronomy in Medicina, Italy, who contributes to the lights in two ways.

Load more