Min Min light

[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.

Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain the lights, including: Scientist Jack Pettigrew has hypothesized that the lights may be the result of insects swarming that have taken on bioluminescent characteristics after being contaminated by naturally occurring agents found in local fungi,[1] or of species of owl with their own naturally occurring source of bioluminescence.

[1] A second hypothesis by Pettigrew is that the lights are the result of known geophysical phenomena, such as piezoelectrics or marsh gas.

[11] A Fata Morgana is a specific form of mirage caused by a stark temperature difference between air layers, which causes remote lights or objects actually beyond the horizon to appear visible above the horizon, often with considerable distortion.

With a Fata Morgana mirage, this would be a refraction of car headlights over the horizon being reflected and being seen to move.