Hessdalen lights
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 6
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Hessdalen phenomenon |
The Hessdalen lights are unexplained lights seen in the Hessdalen valley, a 12-kilometre stretch of rural central Norway, since at least the 1930s. They are among the few UFO-type phenomena to have been studied with permanent scientific instruments.[1][2]
Appearance
The lights appear by day and night, usually bright white, yellow or red, above or below the horizon. They can last from seconds to more than an hour, and may hover, sway slowly or move at great speed.[1]
The 1980s wave
Activity peaked between December 1981 and mid-1984, when lights were reported 15 to 20 times a week, drawing many overnight visitors. By 2010 sightings had fallen to 10 to 20 a year.[1]
Research
In 1983 the Norwegian and Swedish UFO groups UFO-Norge and UFO-Sverige launched Project Hessdalen, which carried out field investigations from 1983 to 1985. In 1998 an automatic measurement station was set up in the valley to record the lights, and a later programme, EMBLA, brought in scientists and students, with Østfold University College in Norway and Italy's National Research Council among the main partners.[1][2][3]
Hypotheses
There is no agreed explanation. Some sightings have been identified as stars, planets, aircraft, car headlights and mirages. One analysis linked the lights to combustion of airborne dust containing elements such as scandium, prompting Norwegian headlines that the mystery was solved. Other proposals include a dusty plasma created by radon decay, electrical effects from the strain of quartz-bearing rocks, and a 2014 model in which the valley acts as a natural battery with the river Hesja as the electrolyte.[1]
Significance
The Hessdalen lights are often compared with other "ghost light" phenomena such as the Marfa lights in Texas and the Brown Mountain lights in North Carolina. Their long-term monitoring makes them unusual in the study of unexplained aerial phenomena.[1][3]
References
- Hessdalen lights — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Hessdalen · hessdalen.org · archived copy
- EMBLA 2000 report, Project Hessdalen (PDF) · web.archive.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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