The Hessdalen lights are unexplained lights observed in a 12-kilometre-long (7.5 mi) stretch of the Hessdalen valley in rural central Norway.
The Hessdalen lights are of unknown origin. They appear both by day and by night, and seem to float through and above the valley. They are usually bright white, yellow, or red and can appear above and below the horizon. The duration of the phenomenon may be a few seconds to well over an hour. Sometimes the lights move with enormous speed; at other times they seem to sway slowly back and forth. On yet other occasions, they hover in mid‑air.
Unusual lights have been reported in the region since at least the 1930s. Especially high activity occurred between December 1981 and mid-1984, in which period the lights were being observed 15–20 times per week, attracting many overnight tourists who arrived in for a sighting. As of 2010, the number of observations has dwindled, with only 10 to 20 sightings made yearly.
Despite the ongoing research, there is no convincing explanation for the phenomenon. However, there are numerous working hypotheses and even more speculations.
One possible explanation attributes the phenomenon to an incompletely understood combustion involving hydrogen, oxygen, and sodium, which occurs in Hessdalen because of the large deposits of scandium there.
One recent hypothesis suggests that the lights are formed by a cluster of macroscopic Coulomb crystals in a plasma produced by the ionization of air and dust by alpha particles during radon decay in the dusty atmosphere. Several physical properties including oscillation, geometric structure, and light spectrum, observed in the Hessdalen lights (HL) can be explained through a dust plasma model. Radon decay produces alpha particles (responsible by helium emissions in HL spectrum) and radioactive elements such as polonium. In 2004, Teodorani showed an occurrence where a higher level of radioactivity on rocks was detected near the area where a large light ball was reported. Computer simulations show that dust immersed in ionized gas can organize itself into double helixes like some occurrences of the Hessdalen lights; dusty plasmas may also form in this structure.
There have been some sightings positively identified as misperceptions of astronomical bodies, aircraft, car headlights, and mirages.
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