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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.
“meteor”14 pages
• •Conference on AERIAL PREROMENA Page 15 illuminated by the sun. In tl.\e caee of the irona, it v.lll be very ta.int, bt1t itOll be there it you lool; for 1t. In the ease of the Four Corners Fail, tlw.t train ,ras obeerved. and I m inclined to believe that it might have been a conventiona.l meteorite fll.ll. In the ca.Be of the green fireballs, to my knouledge, no such train haa been observed.. Tha:;:; question is always asked of people - did you observe a lo:ng enduring train; their replies were al,mys necative. Comdr. Manclelkorn: Then you ,rould say there vere 10 incidents which are a.nalogoua to the green. fireballs, with reports checked by a. sufficient number of in epcnden-t observers, that thdre io no doubt whatsoever of their occurrence? Di-. La.Paz: Tha.t1 s right. Cc,n:.dr. Mu.nd.elkorn: Then there are ~O with some cleviationa, two of these , prcbably are r~leted to the green fireba.Ue ... . . Dr. Lal'ez: I believe two of those 1J:.c1dents I mentioned occurred before the 5th of December. A very remarkable one of the 4th of August .. note that that again 1s vory close to the titte of . . • . . meteor ohower . . . . . . Fram le.te in July on and my report will be producing qu1te a number of thel!le ........ , but it is p~ically imposeible vith this particul.Ar obaerva.tion tram near .•.... Oregon.•... Dr. Bradbury: Th~n their directions ,rere wrons? Dr. La.Paz: Ao a n-.atter or fact, ve can1 t tell because they were single oboervatione. Maybe I ehould :pasc th,_t letter around, but it is, I believe, the i"iret detailed report on vhat might be chsracterized as a typical green fireball.. After the Oscar ..... incident of January l, 1948, was merely a remarkable green flo.Gh, ~'hich might have had some other interpretation. (Dr. LaPnz ebowed some letters around the tc.ble., and ~re ,ro.s general talk not able to be picked up ind.1vidually. ) Major Godsoe: The baaic purpose of t.n:1.a meeting is: ve want you to find a meteor! Mr. Hewburger: Have the mili"c.ary - e.ey-one from the National Defense estab liohment - given us ODything? Sent out any coDJectures about this tl:fog? Major God.soe: :No, most o~ the mil1tary a.uthorities think ve are crackpots; that is, except for the Army Air Force, -which is taking an active interest in details. • Mr. Nevburger: The Air Poree does -have the primary interest in this gadget? Major Godsoe: Yes, the Air Force is -~e gathering, reporting agency tor this phG.'D.OOlenon.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 25 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.