Plasma / ball of light
Also: ball of light; ball of plasma; foo fighter; glowing orb; light phenomenon
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The visual record
Illustrations, recordings and archival references — each with its own provenance. A documented source is a starting point for investigation, not a verdict on its explanation.
Project Hessdalen: photographs and films
Source photographs, films and instrument context. A luminous observation does not by itself identify plasma or a conscious being.
Project Hessdalen ↗Link only — rights with the publisherOriginal automatic-station film index
Original films and observing notes. Publicly readable; blanket reproduction permission was not established. Linked, not reproduced here.
Project Hessdalen ↗Link only — rights with the publisherAn interpretation of the reports
AI interpretation of the 'ball of plasma' or self-luminous light with no visible hull, colour-shifting and diffuse, as described by Tim Burchett, Ross Coulthart and Hessdalen and Skinwalker witnesses. Not a photograph, not evidence.
UAP Record · ImageGen ↗Original illustrationRoss Coulthart · 0:00:01
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedTim Burchett · 0:55:16
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedAmerican Alchemy · 0:53:04
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedA self-luminous light with no visible hull — described as a ball of plasma, a pulsing golden orb or a fractal “crystal sphere” — that changes colour, splits and moves in ways witnesses say aircraft cannot. Speakers cite WWII foo fighters, Skinwalker Ranch orbs, a congressman’s 3-metre plasma spheres and Dylan Borland’s gold “lava” flowing over a triangle.
Read the full account
Some witnesses see no craft at all, only light. Ross Coulthart relays an Australian watch where “up comes this beautiful golden orb, gigantic. It pulses. It’s plasmatic.” Congressman Tim Burchett, relaying briefings, describes objects “like 3 meters in diameter” that glow in different colours, “some type of spherical nebulous, what’s described as like a ball of plasma”, and wonders whether “you see the plasma sphere before the orb”. An anonymous experiencer describes a light that is “fractalized”, “swirling”, “emitting its own light source”, inside a “crystal sphere”.
Plasma also appears as a skin on solid objects. Dylan Borland says that on the Langley triangle “on top of the craft was this gold lava, plasma, some type of fluid going over and around the craft”; Mario Woods says his Ellsworth sphere had an energy source moving around it that he hesitates to “call it plasma”. Michael Herrera and UAPGerb, pressed for a man-made comparison, say the objects look “at most like a plasma orb”. Jesse Michels traces the report back to the wartime “Foo Fighters issue from 42 to 45” with some 200 allied pilot witnesses, and Brandon Fugal describes orbs at Skinwalker Ranch passing through rock.
Explanations offered: atmospheric plasma and ball lightning, geological “earthlights”, aircraft or satellite lights misjudged, a propulsion glow around an otherwise unseen craft, and claims that the lights respond to observers. The existence of unexplained lights is well supported by the volume and spread of reports; what they are remains open.
Reported characteristics
Every value is a report, not a specification.
| shape | No fixed outline: a glowing ball or diffuse blob; sometimes a ring or halo; sometimes a luminous layer over a solid hull. |
|---|---|
| size | From fist-sized to “3 meters” (Burchett) to “gigantic” (Coulthart); distance is rarely judged. |
| lights | White, golden, orange, red or colour-shifting; pulsing, swirling, splitting into several lights. |
| sound | Silent in the corpus accounts. |
| motion | Hovering, sudden acceleration, splitting and merging, passing through rock; some witnesses say it reacts to them. |
| era | WWII foo fighters onward; Hessdalen since 1981; Skinwalker Ranch since the 1990s. |
Explanations offered
Atmospheric plasma, ball lightning or geological “earthlights”
Aircraft, satellite or celestial lights misjudged
Propulsion glow around an otherwise unseen craft
Phenomenon that responds to observers
Mentioned in the corpus
Passages this record cites, with the stamp of the block each quote sits in.
"I Located A UFO Base In Arizona!" -Ross Coulthart 21 June 2025
- 0:00:01 ▶ Ross Coulthart
up comes this beautiful golden orb, gigantic. It pulses. It's plasmatic.
- 0:00:01 ▶ Ross Coulthart
Congressman Reveals The Alien Brief That Changed The President’s Life 2 July 2026
- 0:55:16 ▶ Tim Burchett
they're like 3 meters in diameter, sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger, and they have different shades of color that they glow in, but they are some type of spherical nebulous, what's described as like a ball of plasma.
- 0:57:18 ▶ Tim Burchett
maybe they you see the plasma sphere before the orb
- 0:55:16 ▶ Tim Burchett
“I Was Taken By The UFO Program As a Kid!” [Exclusive Interview] 16 June 2026
The Pentagon’s UFO Program Is Real [Here’s How It Works!] ft. UAPGerb 11 January 2026
- 0:19:46 ▶ Dylan Borland (archival clip)
on top of the craft was this gold lava, plasma, some type of fluid going over and around the craft.
- 0:19:46 ▶ Dylan Borland (archival clip)
Nuclear Guard Speaks Out About UFO Abduction 16 January 2025
- 0:19:26 ▶ Mario Woods
it had an energy source that that moved around it like like you'd see pictures of the Sun how it's just like boiling I don't want to call it plasma but I don't know what what really to call it
- 0:19:26 ▶ Mario Woods
“I Saw A 300ft UFO In The Indonesian Jungle” (Ft. Michael Herrera & UAPGerb) 26 March 2025
UFO Skeptic Mick West Challenged To A Debate 26 January 2025
- 1:35:32 ▶ Jesse Michels
Eisenhower was aware of the Foo Fighters issue from 42 to 45. You had around or possibly over 200 uh uh fighter pilot witnesses
- 1:35:32 ▶ Jesse Michels
Skinwalker Ranch Owner Reveals “Time Portal” On the Property 25 July 2026
- 0:05:59 ▶ Brandon Fugal
You see orbs and spheres often around the mesa, sometimes going through the mea, going through rock
- 0:05:59 ▶ Brandon Fugal
Named in 2 uploads (automatic name matching, 4 mentions)
On the map
Skinwalker Ranch, Hessdalen Valley, Ellsworth AFB, Foo fighter reports (WWII aircrews), Colares wave and Operação Prato, Ellsworth AFB "November 5" encounter (Mario Woods, November 1977)… Open the full map filtered to this record.
Sources on this record
- 0:00:01 "I Located A UFO Base In Arizona!" -Ross Coulthart · Ross Coulthart ▶
up comes this beautiful golden orb, gigantic. It pulses. It's plasmatic.
- 0:55:16 Congressman Reveals The Alien Brief That Changed The President’s Life · Tim Burchett ▶
they're like 3 meters in diameter, sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger, and they have different shades of color that they glow in, but they are some type of spherical nebulous, what's described as like a ball of plasma.
- 0:57:18 Congressman Reveals The Alien Brief That Changed The President’s Life · Tim Burchett ▶
maybe they you see the plasma sphere before the orb
- 0:53:04 “I Was Taken By The UFO Program As a Kid!” [Exclusive Interview] ▶
It's fractalized. It's swirling and it's emitting its own light source. Wow. Right. So, there's this it's fixed defined shell, crystal orb, crystal sphere.
- 0:19:46 The Pentagon’s UFO Program Is Real [Here’s How It Works!] ft. UAPGerb · Dylan Borland (archival clip) ▶
on top of the craft was this gold lava, plasma, some type of fluid going over and around the craft.
- 0:19:26 Nuclear Guard Speaks Out About UFO Abduction · Mario Woods ▶
it had an energy source that that moved around it like like you'd see pictures of the Sun how it's just like boiling I don't want to call it plasma but I don't know what what really to call it
- 0:23:50 “I Saw A 300ft UFO In The Indonesian Jungle” (Ft. Michael Herrera & UAPGerb) ▶
It looks at most like a plasma orb if you had to like, you know, compare it to something that is man-made.
- 1:35:32 UFO Skeptic Mick West Challenged To A Debate · Jesse Michels ▶
Eisenhower was aware of the Foo Fighters issue from 42 to 45. You had around or possibly over 200 uh uh fighter pilot witnesses
- 0:05:59 Skinwalker Ranch Owner Reveals “Time Portal” On the Property · Brandon Fugal ▶
You see orbs and spheres often around the mesa, sometimes going through the mea, going through rock
Built from graph nodes N-SPECIES-0105.