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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
Conference on AERIAL PBENOMENA Page 20 Dr. La.Po.z: It should be possible ..... The cO?tVentiona.l meteor cannot be :photogr :phed. e.t t.he pre~ent time. The so-called met.eorecbmitts that Harvard College .ts nou having produced at verJ great expense, they expect to go down to the 4th and poaeib~ fa.inter. l1ith one of those, a bright green :fii-eball might be photographed, but they are not o.vaile.ble•.••.. Ml!. Devburger: Does a.nybody knov if ·chere were any experiments ce.rried out in Europe, prior to th',! w.r when our la.st beat information CGme tram over there, al.pug this line? Dr. La.Paz: Not tom::, knovledge. I raised that question with Dr. Kapl.e.n and he gave me 8Qme? :rather arurprising information. DJ:. Kaplan had atteDded. the IAU meetings in Syria ? and the Russians had a large repres tation there. Sm:"ficiently large, as a matter ot :te.ct, to beat dam the proposal that the IAU appoint an international camnittee to investigate the so...called ••.•• meteorite crater procluced in the fall ot 1947, 1"ebrua.ry 12. On the contrary, at ·the Oswsl.d, I think it w.o, conference ot the International Geophysical Union, none of the Russian geoph;teie1sts vere present. Kaplan'a interpreta tion was that they feel ao far ahead ot us that they d1cm•t t.bink they oould 1 am anything, and they were taking the precaution that no leak occurred.. • Mr. Nwburger: Were the GemaM ex,periment11l8 1n UN phase tbat vas poaa1bcy cozmected with it? Dr. LePaz: "I-ell, t'lle'.Y had the ao•ce.J..J.ed otation.e in apace ••••• might have some attachment to it. Comdr. Mandelkorn: You don't he.ve any record of ~nma.nts. Dr. LaFa.a: Bo, no Jmowl~ of exporimenta•••••• I have the belief tllat no country in t world has thqre b~cn meteoritics developed a~ it has in Ruoeia in .,"eee:L"t years. Recently, -the AcRdeny of Science of' the USRR has bf:en issuing a so-called met~ritic, an eztraQ?!'d1nery publication - very little work of the ca.liber being ~ ~ the Russians he.& been conducted in the United States. Apparen·cly, there 1 t has big liN,P.POrt; hen, 1t is c.n 1ndiv:td\181 matter. UntU we had some milltcry interest in meteori~ictJ, ve vere DeVer able to :round even an institute ill moteor1t1cs in the unite'1. States. The one 1n New Moxico is an out51"mrth of application of meteoritics to determine, sq. ballistic eoetticients ror shells ot unconventional .design like the p1'0Z1m1ty tuze shell w1tb the radio 1n its nose, 811d that sort ot thing.' 'l'hat 0 s vb.ere wie got a s~. Apparentl.7., "he Ruasians got that ~ller and have f'ull..fledged st&~ eupport. Dr~ BoUO'U'&y: Bov much interest would the mil:l.tary have if tbey found out these 1ili,nge vere lancU.ng all over ~ country, Cerllda., Bava11., ~tc.? ..... Have you contact6d peopl.e in the East1 Dr. La.Paz: Olivia, C. C. Olivio., President of the Amerie&11 Meteor Society, Ki~, Leone.rd, Pruitt, Xapl.an, tc. MQet o£ them have been obsem.ns; Kaplan, I 1.!uagi.ne, bas not, 'because h~ is JJOW preocc'1,Pied vi.th labo.ra.tory . .
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