Hessdalen lights
- Date
- Dec 1981
- Place
- Hessdalen valley, Holtålen, Trøndelag, Norway
- Record
- Curated case
- Assessment
- Unexplained
- Evidence strength
What was reported
Residents of the Hessdalen valley reported bright white, yellow or red lights that hover, drift or move fast, 15 to 20 times a week between December 1981 and mid-1984 and less often since. Project Hessdalen's 1984 field campaign and, from 1998, an automatic measurement station with cameras, radar and magnetometers have recorded the lights repeatedly, with results in peer-reviewed papers; some sightings proved to be stars, aircraft or headlights. There is no agreed mechanism: proposals include combustion of airborne dust and a dusty plasma, and the workbench dossier treats it as a persistent unidentified natural light, not evidence of craft.
What officials concluded
No conclusion stated
No official explanation has been given.
Strongest ordinary reading
An unexplained natural atmospheric or geophysical light (dust combustion or dusty plasma proposed)
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- Yes: Radar
- Yes: Video
- Yes: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- Yes: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- Yes: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- Yes: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Outside sources
- Wikipedia: Hessdalen lightsen.wikipedia.org
On the map
62.79° N, 11.19° E, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record
Show on the map