Despite all the research and attempts to explain the Martha fires, the phenomenon remains an unsolved mystery.
Martha's wandering lights, also called Martha's ghostly or mystical lights, can be seen far out on the prairie in western Texas near the city of Martha.
Until now, the nature of the origin of this phenomenon has not been established. Typically, this phenomenon can only be seen east of Martha, south of the highway, in an area called Mitchell Flat.
Martha's Lights: UFOs, Swamp Gas, or an Unknown Phenomenon?
The Martha Lights are most commonly seen about nine miles east of Martha City, on Highway 90. The glow is described by eyewitnesses as basketball-sized spheres that hover 5 to 6 feet above the ground, but occasionally there are reports of that the spheres rise to much greater heights.
The most common colors are white, yellow, orange and red, but there have also been reports of eyewitnesses seeing green and blue spheres. Usually, the lights pulsate with their glow, they can also dim repeatedly or flash very quickly.
During the observations, it was noticed that the luminous balls move chaotically, almost never repeating the trajectory of their movement. Sometimes they slowly move to one side, then sharply at high speed "shoot" in the opposite.
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An interesting fact is that fireballs usually appear in pairs or groups, sometimes merging, sometimes splitting into parts, or suddenly disappearing and then reappearing.
The lights are observed exclusively at night, but the time of their appearance is always unpredictable. Fireballs can be seen 15 to 30 times a year. Neither the season, nor the weather in any way affects their appearance or frequency of observations.
First observations
According to a book by Cecilia Thompson of Martha, a Texas resident named Robert Ellison first saw the mysterious lights in 1883, and the story was passed down orally to the Allison family.
According to the texts, Ellison was leading his cattle through the Peisano Pass, near Martha, and suddenly saw mysterious lights. Initially, he feared that the fires belonged to the fires of the Indians, but after long observation, he realized that the mysterious balls were something else.
He repeatedly traveled the area on horseback, but could not find ash or other evidence of the presence of the Indian camp. When he told other settlers about the fires, they also confirmed that they saw them, but could not explain the nature of their origin.
In July 1957, the story of Martha's lights appeared on the pages of Coronet magazine, in an article titled The Secret of Texas Ghost Lights.
Official fire research
In May 2004, the Society of Physics Students at the University of Texas and Dallas began a four-day investigation of the fireball phenomenon near Martha. They believed that Martha's lights were nothing more than distorted reflections of the headlights of cars traveling on Highway 67.
But during their research, the students were never able to confirm their theory. Later, they themselves admitted that a real phenomenon occurs infrequently, and cars pass along this highway every day and therefore, the lights cannot be reflections from headlights.
Later, some other possible explanations of the phenomenon were proposed: ball lightning, swamp gas (in West Texas ?!), phosphorescent minerals, piezoelectric effects of tectonic activity or earthquakes, ghosts, ghosts, alien probes, and UFOs - you can list them endlessly.
Nevertheless, despite all the research and attempts to explain the Martha fires, the phenomenon remains an unsolved mystery.