The Min Min lights are one of Australia’s greatest supernatural mysteries.
A sign on the way into Boulia, Queensland reads:
For the next 120km towards Winton you are in the land of the Min Min Light. This unsolved modern mystery is a light that at times follows travellers for long distances – it has been approached but never identified.
For the next 120km towards Winton you are in the land of the Min Min Light. This unsolved modern mystery is a light that at times follows travellers for long distances – it has been approached but never identified.
These football or watermelon shaped glowing balls of light have been following travellers through the Queensland outback for over sixty years. No satisfactory scientific explanation exists to explain them.
The lights are named after the Min Min hotel in Boulia that burnt down in 1918. Soon after the fire a stockman was followed by a light on his journey to Boulia.
Stories about the lights can be found in Aboriginal myths pre-dating European settlement and have since become part of wider Australian folklore. Indigenous Australians hold that the number of sightings has increased alongside the increasing ingression of Europeans into the outback. According to folklore, the lights sometimes follow or approach people and disappear, sometimes very rapidly, when fired upon, only to reappear later on. It is said that the first recorded sighting dates to 1838, in the book Six Months in South Australia, but those are likely to be two different phenomena.
Boulia locals have become accustomed to the weird light that seems to follow people around.Source:News Limited
Accounts of the light appearances vary, though they are most commonly described as being fuzzy, disc-shaped lights that appear to hover just above the horizon. They are often described as being white, though some accounts describe them as changing colour from white to red to green and back again. Some accounts describe them as being dim, others describe them as being bright enough to illuminate the ground under them and to cause nearby objects to throw clearly defined shadows.
Some witnesses describe the light as appearing to approach them several times before retreating. Others report that the lights were able to keep pace with them when they were in a moving motor vehicle.
There are many theories as to what he Min Min lights are. Fluorescent gases released from the barren earth, clouds of bioluminescent insects, a flock of fireflies perhaps, maybe even UFOs.
But Jack Pettigrew, a neuroscientist at the University of Queensland, thinks he’s solved the riddle.
“I experienced the phenomenon myself as well as hearing about it from graziers.”
Jack Pettigrew, a neuroscientist at the University of Queensland, thinks he’s solved the riddle of the Min Min lights.
He stumbled across it quite by accident more than a decade ago when he was searching for a rare bird that appears only at night near the town.
He and his team saw what they thought were the eyes of a fox reflected in their headlights.
“We were surprised that the bright spot of light was still there when we turned off the headlights.”
In his research paper, Mr Pettigrew described the light as having “fuzzy edges in rapid motion like a swarm of bees”, differing colours and that it moved “with a mind of its own”.
Caught in the Min Min’s glow, grown men could cry, he said.
“They would never be identified but the fear was evident,” he told news.com.au, “It was very scary.”
They’re not spirits or UFOs, said Mr Pettigrew, but they are something very strange indeed.
He believes the lights are a nocturnal form of the rare Fata Morgana mirage, a phenomenon where ideal climactic conditions can see light travel over vast distances and even cross horizons.
In a Fata Morgana mirage objects can appear far closer then they are in reality and can even seem to float above the horizon.Source:YouTube
Mr Pettigrew tested the theory by driving his car 10km into the desert and parked it behind a small hill to ensure it was completely obscured.
“When I pointed the vehicle in the direction of the camp, observers saw a light floating above the horizon.” Sure enough the lights changed colour and trembled. When he switched off the headlights, the apparition vanished.
He concluded the mysterious Min Min he originally saw was likely to be the projected headlights from a road as much as 350km way. They later found at a road train had passed along that road at the same time.
Click to Post
A sign on the way into Boulia, Queensland reads:
For the next 120km towards Winton you are in the land of the Min Min Light. This unsolved modern mystery is a light that at times follows travellers for long distances – it has been approached but never identified.
For the next 120km towards Winton you are in the land of the Min Min Light. This unsolved modern mystery is a light that at times follows travellers for long distances – it has been approached but never identified.
These football or watermelon shaped glowing balls of light have been following travellers through the Queensland outback for over sixty years. No satisfactory scientific explanation exists to explain them.
The lights are named after the Min Min hotel in Boulia that burnt down in 1918. Soon after the fire a stockman was followed by a light on his journey to Boulia.
Stories about the lights can be found in Aboriginal myths pre-dating European settlement and have since become part of wider Australian folklore. Indigenous Australians hold that the number of sightings has increased alongside the increasing ingression of Europeans into the outback. According to folklore, the lights sometimes follow or approach people and disappear, sometimes very rapidly, when fired upon, only to reappear later on. It is said that the first recorded sighting dates to 1838, in the book Six Months in South Australia, but those are likely to be two different phenomena.
Boulia locals have become accustomed to the weird light that seems to follow people around.Source:News Limited
Accounts of the light appearances vary, though they are most commonly described as being fuzzy, disc-shaped lights that appear to hover just above the horizon. They are often described as being white, though some accounts describe them as changing colour from white to red to green and back again. Some accounts describe them as being dim, others describe them as being bright enough to illuminate the ground under them and to cause nearby objects to throw clearly defined shadows.
Some witnesses describe the light as appearing to approach them several times before retreating. Others report that the lights were able to keep pace with them when they were in a moving motor vehicle.
There are many theories as to what he Min Min lights are. Fluorescent gases released from the barren earth, clouds of bioluminescent insects, a flock of fireflies perhaps, maybe even UFOs.
But Jack Pettigrew, a neuroscientist at the University of Queensland, thinks he’s solved the riddle.
“I experienced the phenomenon myself as well as hearing about it from graziers.”
Jack Pettigrew, a neuroscientist at the University of Queensland, thinks he’s solved the riddle of the Min Min lights.
He stumbled across it quite by accident more than a decade ago when he was searching for a rare bird that appears only at night near the town.
He and his team saw what they thought were the eyes of a fox reflected in their headlights.
“We were surprised that the bright spot of light was still there when we turned off the headlights.”
In his research paper, Mr Pettigrew described the light as having “fuzzy edges in rapid motion like a swarm of bees”, differing colours and that it moved “with a mind of its own”.
Caught in the Min Min’s glow, grown men could cry, he said.
“They would never be identified but the fear was evident,” he told news.com.au, “It was very scary.”
They’re not spirits or UFOs, said Mr Pettigrew, but they are something very strange indeed.
He believes the lights are a nocturnal form of the rare Fata Morgana mirage, a phenomenon where ideal climactic conditions can see light travel over vast distances and even cross horizons.
In a Fata Morgana mirage objects can appear far closer then they are in reality and can even seem to float above the horizon.Source:YouTube
Mr Pettigrew tested the theory by driving his car 10km into the desert and parked it behind a small hill to ensure it was completely obscured.
“When I pointed the vehicle in the direction of the camp, observers saw a light floating above the horizon.” Sure enough the lights changed colour and trembled. When he switched off the headlights, the apparition vanished.
He concluded the mysterious Min Min he originally saw was likely to be the projected headlights from a road as much as 350km way. They later found at a road train had passed along that road at the same time.
Sources:
http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/eternity/mystery#pageindex1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_Min_light
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)
Click to Post
