The unsolved mystery of Marfa Lights
Have you ever had the opportunity to come upon a mirage while travelling through a desert? If you have, you would know how deceptive a phenomenon it is. Now, whether it’s an optical illusion or some unexplained occurrence, we can’t be sure. But if you travel along the arid regions of Marfa in Texas, USA, there’s a chance that you may experience a series of floating lights, far out in the desert. It’s commonly known as Marfa Lights. Let us explore this mysterious phenomenon together.
Marfa Lights: What exactly happens
The tiny town of Marfa experiences strange lights above its horizons. In fact, this hard-to-explain phenomenon has been occurring for the past 135 years. So, what exactly happens? Well, mysteriously glowing and dancing orbs, in the shades of yellow, blue, white and red appear out of the blue in the night sky. Eventually, all the lights either split or merge or float or melt into the thin air.
While these lights can be seen all across the town, it’s more common on the south-eastern side (called ‘Paisano Pass’) where the town ends and the desert (Chihuahuan Desert) begins. Okay, but what are these lights? The answer is, nobody really knows. In fact, believe it or not, it continues to be one of the most unexplained mysteries in the USA. And maybe that’s why, it is often also called Marfa Ghost Lights. While the earliest written record of the Marfa Lights was found in 1945, locals and tourists have been witnessing them since the late 19th century. In fact, its first known sighting was by a young cowboy named Robert Reed Ellison in 1883.
An unsolved mystery
By now, you must have wondered when do these lights appear? Well, experts cite that there’s no way to predict that. However, they do appear around 30 times annually, either before the sun comes up, or after it goes down.
As you can imagine, over the years, experts have tried to figure out the causes behind the lights. For instance, the locals believe that the lights are supernatural and are caused by the dancing spirit of a local chief by the name of Alsate, who haunts the Chinati Mountains near Marfa.
There are others who believe that the lights are extra-terrestrial and generate from low-flying UFOs. It’s almost as if aliens try to communicate with earthlings. Native Americans also believed that they were nothing more than fallen stars.
However, like most mysteries, Marfa Lights too have other more reasonable explanations, such as they are mere headlights from cars that run along a highway 20 miles away or they are in fact superior mirage (refraction of light caused when a layer of calm, warm air rests above a cool air), fooling generations after generations.
Interestingly, there are two potential scientific explanations as well. One involves natural gas and electricity. According to this theory, the lights generate when bubbles of gas catch fire, almost like that of swamp gas (methane and phosphine ignite when they come in contact with oxygen). But, in the modern times, the explanation provided by James Bunnell, a retired NASA aerospace engineer who is native to the region, sounds the most convincing. He theorises that the Earth’s friction underground (among a series of igneous rocks) produces an electromagnetic charge and in turn produce sparks.
In 1986, the town of Marfa embraced its local mystery and started organising Marfa Lights Festival. Later, in 2003, a Marfa Lights viewing platform was also erected.
Marfa: A mysterious tiny town
Marfa is a tiny town located in the middle of nowhere. It is situated 50 miles from the Mexican border and stands in the remotest part of far West Texas, an area that is popularly called “El Despoblado” or The Uninhabited. The town is home to approximately 2000 people (the number reducing with each passing year), has one traffic light to be exact and is located at the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert. What’s more intriguing is the town’s official slogan, “Tough to get to. Tougher to explain. But once you get here, you (will) get it.”