The hovering balls of light that have been seen above Norway’s Hessdalen (“Hess Valley”) just north of Røros in Sør-Trøndelag County have long defied scientific explanation. But the curiosity of Norwegian scientists following spectacular displays of the lights in the early 1980s has triggered research into what now is called the Hessdalen phenomenon. An explanation of it may now be at hand.
The Hessdalen phenomenon sorts into the broad class of apparitions known as atmospheric ghost lights. The class most famously includes will-o’-the-wisp, also known as ignis fatuus (Medieval Latin for “foolish fire”), well ensconced in English as well as European folklore.
The connection with folklore long deterred scientific inquiry. Moreover, the United States Air Force had extensively studied anomalies in the sky in the early 1950s that could not be attributed to known objects or phenomenon, grouping them under the designation unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The studies ended in 1953 with the conclusion that UFOs were not worthy of scientific pursuit. So though UFOs remained popular in fiction, mainstream science lost interest in them.
Three decades later, scientists at the Østfold University College at Halden who were curious about the Hessdalen phenomenon came together with equally curious colleagues from Sweden in early June 1983 to discuss how it might be researched. They bravely bucked the lack of scientific interest in UFOs and started Project Hessdalen.
To read more, click here.