The Min Min light
A light reported by people in the Australian outback. Stories about it exist in several Aboriginal cultures, and in 2003 a University of Queensland scientist said he had worked out its cause.
Wikipedia says stories about the lights come from several Aboriginal Australian cultures, predate European colonisation, and later passed into wider Australian folklore. It also records that some Indigenous Australians say sightings grew more frequent as Europeans moved into the outback.
Brian Dunning of Skeptoid says the oldest written account known dates from 1838 and appears in T. Horton James's book Six Months in South Australia. Wikipedia notes that claim and says the event the book describes may be a different phenomenon.
In 2003 a scientist at the University of Queensland said light from any source, natural or made by people, is bent by an inverted mirage, a Fata Morgana, and carried to someone standing tens or hundreds of kilometres off. ABC News in Science reported that the neuroscientist said he could now make the lights appear himself. Skeptoid covered the light in its episode 133, Chasing the Min Min Light.
- Origin
- Stories about the lights belong to several Aboriginal Australian cultures and predate colonisation (Wikipedia). No Aboriginal-authored or community source was found, so their content is not described here. The earliest written account claimed is T. Horton James's Six Months in South Australia (1838), cited by Skeptoid; Wikipedia says the event it describes may be a different phenomenon.
- How we treat it
- The label covers the light as settlers, travellers and scientists have reported it. It says nothing about the Aboriginal stories, which are not the site's to retell without a community source.
- Routes out
- No community voice was found. The University of Queensland's own report comes first, then ABC News in Science, then Skeptoid, then Wikipedia.
"Stories about the lights can be found in several Aboriginal Australian cultures predating the European colonisation of Australia, and have since become part of wider Australian folklore.[1] Some Indigenous Australians hold that the number of sightings has increased in conjunction with the ingression of Europeans into the outback.[1] While it has been claimed that the first recorded sighting dates to 1838, in the book Six Months in South Australia,[3] it is possible that the event described is a different phenomenon.[4]"
- UQ scientist unlocks secret of Min Min lights, University of Queensland News (2003, archived)
- Mystery of the Min Min lights explained, ABC News in Science (28 March 2003, archived)
- Skeptoid #133: Chasing the Min Min Light, Brian Dunning, Skeptoid (2008)