Mystery lights · Ghost lights

Min Min Light

When
since c. 1918
Where
Near Boulia, Channel Country region, Queensland, Australia
Verdict
Disputed

A fuzzy light hovering above the horizon in the Australian outback that, according to accounts, can follow travelers.

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-22.91°, 139.91° · dimmed: other phenomena within 1,500 km

What happened

Stories of a mysterious light are known in the cultures of several Aboriginal peoples, and they later entered the folklore of white settlers. The name most likely comes from the Min Min Hotel on a remote route in western Queensland, where a stockman is said to have seen the light in 1918, although this connection is not documented. Witnesses describe a fuzzy, usually white ball that hangs just above the horizon, approaches, recedes, and can “accompany” a moving car for many kilometers. Accounts come from an area stretching from western New South Wales to northern Queensland, most often from the flat Channel Country. The small town of Boulia has made the light its emblem and uses it to attract tourists.

Witnesses

Stockmen, drivers, and residents of the outback; the phenomenon has rarely been photographed or filmed.

Explanations and hypotheses

In 2003 neuroscientist Jack Pettigrew proposed that the Min Min light is a form of Fata Morgana mirage: during a strong temperature inversion over a flat plain, headlights or campfires located far beyond the horizon become visible. This would explain why older accounts describe a stationary light and more recent ones a moving one. Luminescent insects and swamp gases have also been considered, but these hypotheses have not been confirmed.

Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.

More: Wikipedia (en)