# Mercury Mission Strange Lights Explained?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-mission-strange-lights-explained/613206>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 18, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-mission-strange-lights-explained/613206 "2012-02-18T00:51:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-mission-strange-lights-explained/613206/1 "2012-02-18T00:51:14Z")

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Some may recall how one of the Mercury astronauts claimied to have seen strange lights during his mission. (I cannot recall which astronaut, however.) Since the introduction of the space shuttle; hence, frequent visits into space, it has been reported how astronauts have actually seen particles (expelled from the sun and thrown toward earth by the solar wind) pass through their eyeballs.\* Could this explain what the Mercury astronaut actually saw? I am hoping some SDopers may have additional information to offer about this.

\*Ref: Discovery Channel’s “How The Universe Was Made” series

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**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-mission-strange-lights-explained/613206/2 "2012-02-18T02:19:08Z")

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If you mean John Glenn’s “fireflies”, I believe Scott Carpenter later determined that they were tiny specks of frost that the capsule would shed whenever it entered daylight.

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**Author:** ![oliversarmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb8c5e/32.png) [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-mission-strange-lights-explained/613206/3 "2012-02-18T02:46:31Z")

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Darn, I always thought they were embers from an Aboriginal bonfire.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-mission-strange-lights-explained/613206/4 "2012-02-18T03:34:15Z")

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Here, take a look at what [John Glenn himself had to say about it (starting at about 2:00)](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1969167366054083869#)!

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-mission-strange-lights-explained/613206/5 "2012-02-18T04:39:56Z")

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> [@oliversarmy](#):
>
> Darn, I always thought they were embers from an Aboriginal bonfire.

As seen in old movies full of The Wrong Stuff. 😃

Yes, a story I read mentioned droplets of water. In the outpouring of news articles about John Glenn these last few days, that was mentioned somewhere (inevitably, of course). The particular colors seen in those drops were said to be still unexplained. (Greenish, if I remember what I read.)