What are the lights seen on most nights from the viewing area east of Marfa?
Four answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.
Where it stands
Four answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Four are still possible.
Why it matters
Lights can be watched from the viewing area practically every night, and these are what most accounts, photographs and the tourist trade describe[1]. A chase car in 2004 and spectroscopy in 2008 identified the lights they recorded as vehicle headlights and other ordinary sources[2][3]; whether that holds for all of them decides what is left to explain.
Answers 4
What would settle it
- Read the full texts of Stephan et al. (2009), Darack (2008) and Bunnell's books, which this page cites from abstracts, reviews and later summaries.
- Measure the light–traffic correlation: tabulate light counts from viewing-area video against an hourly US 67 traffic count on the same nights.
History
- Moran puts forward: a natural light of unknown origin, seen most nights
- Moran: coronet wrote in 1957 that settlers had reported the light more than 70 years earlier, when the brightest light in the…Against: Headlights on US 67, distorted by the air
- Cartwright puts forward: a natural light of unknown origin, seen most nights
- Cartwright: in August 1983 Gary Cartwright watched lights from US 90 that he could not match to the known ranch houses, roads…Against: Headlights on US 67, distorted by the air
- Cartwright: a journalist watching from US 90 in 1983 could not match the lights he saw to any known light.For: A natural light of unknown origin, seen most nights
- Stolyarov et al. puts forward: headlights on US 67, distorted by the air
- Stephan et al.: in 20 nights of telescope, video and spectrometer watching in 2008, the candidate lights were identified as headlamps…For: Headlights on US 67, distorted by the air
- Stephan et al.: every light seen on the nights of the 2004 chase-car test and in 20 nights of spectroscopy in 2008 was identified as…Against: A natural light of unknown origin, seen most nights
- Borraz Aymerich & Ballester Olmos puts forward: headlights reflected off the soil beside US 67
- Borraz Aymerich & Ballester Olmos: time exposures of traffic on US 67 reproduce the tracks of the "classic" lights seen towards the Chinati Mountains.For: Headlights on US 67, distorted by the air
- Borraz Aymerich & Ballester Olmos: the flicker the airborne survey's ground observer saw is explained by terrain hiding the road and by bends turning…Against: Headlights reflected off the soil beside US 67
- Borraz Aymerich & Ballester Olmos: while ground video recorded lights on 25 August 2000, the airborne hyperspectral sensor and crew saw nothing unusual…For: Headlights reflected off the soil beside US 67
- Session 1: raised the question and proposed three answers