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This declassified document is a March 22, 1949 letter from the Security Operations Branch of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Santa Fe Directed Operations. It forwards a transcript of a Conference on Aerial Phenomena held at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory on February 16, 1949. At the conference, Dr. LaPaz described the green fireballs, including his own Starvation Peak sighting of December 12, 1948, and argued that they were not conventional meteors. Dr. Teller and others discussed why the fireballs made no sound, and no conclusion was reached.
“Green”19 pages
•Confe1·ence on AERIJ\.L PBENOMENA Page 13 Dr. :ta.Paz: mutee chiefly. If' you look closely snd Yithout interference 'from outside liglrts, yellmrs, oranges and reds. Dr. :era.clbury: But it's apparently a yellowish-green we 9re t.a.1k1ng G.bout here. If you can eee a bluish-green, you can aleo a,ee yellows and whites. Dr. laPaz: '!here is some defect, possibly in the vision, that %'8qu1ree a pretty high intensity in that yellow-green before it9s uoUd 1n a meteor fall. Dr. Bradbury: Looks like greenCZ Dr. LaI'az: Yes it does, that0 s perfectly true. Now here's a peculiar property of thoae yellov.-gr"en fireballs - same people vill ref'er to them as red. The only exple..ne.tion that I can tbillk of is they report afterwards that they m:e what ~a@ exposure to a very green-blUioh light i"ather thnn -the Ugb.t itself• I donit lm.ov if that 1s correct. And, incidentally, due to your observation, I don qt kno\-r how to explain the ina.bility of meteor 9baervers to report this :;.-enega.d color, but, I eim;ply know it doesn't occur. You So through long lists, like those of the American Meteor Society, you will tilld, I i.JDaSi.ne, not l 1n 100 where a geen is mentioned. Even in the case of the ? ehowere, were you have largo nUinbera of very brigt.t colors• let me recall eooiething that allot you must have seen. The • • • • • shower of Oetober 9, 1946 - ~ here who so.v that? '!'here veN large numbers ot e:.ctremelJ bright fireball.a at that ti?r.e. 0 Kaplan himaelf' recalled that they were blue, maybe blus•sreen, but never yellow green. And I observ~d those und.er very to.vorable circumstances - ve were ny1ns a.t about 20.,000 f et in e. B-29. We had no absorption ettecta at ell. They def'ir:ite1Y' did not shov hues or green. Dr. Bradbury: You mentioned the noiae problem also. The noise occurs only when ·the meteot' i tselt blows up, breaks up? D:t•. La.Paz: No, tb&t isn't strictly ·i;rue. You have, in addition to the hollow sound, the normal sound of ~ breaku!) of the • • • • • You have headwind; you're near the path. You get a real ahock; 'to-r 1J1Stance, we have ••••• apparently broken up by that hea.dwave, shock wave, _in the caee ot the !ford.en County-P'alla. And then from the turbulence and retlections eJ.l the way along the path,~ liill have a. rumbling 'Qbich nyxy endure oot for the matter~ a tenth of a second, bQt for m1nutee, and they~re rw rough. Dr. Bradb"UrY: But these occur fairly close to the tra,Jeetory? Dr. Le.Paz: Ro. In the case ot ~ Norden County Fells aaa,n, they were heard clear doim to . . . . . City. •Shakes buildings that rar away. The •••• o Pe.Us were> heard up to 300 miles from the point ot 1-()act. Dr. ~48.dbury: Large number of observations ••.••.. Dr. LaPa.z: Bo, the.re again I checked very care:tw.ly because I we concerned. I am trying desp<erately to give e. logical explanation to the abaence ot 8011Dd.
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