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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 AEICAL PHENOMENA Page 4
surface of the e~~h and is aa.:i.ehol{ eadowcd vith tbe property against the very
grea"i:, atmor.pher1c reointance tlmt is experienced. on a level, it reserves neerly
eons-t-..e.n.t ve1lccity over paths say of th.e order of 25 to over 100 miles, as in
the case oi' the greeu fireball en January 30th. It should also bave the
property that it is a very remerkable h·t1e of green, not heretofore observed,
to my knowledge, in "i:.ho case of a:ey- conveutional meteor falls. And finally,
and this pcseibly Ls the moa·I; i.1;1plausible :t"ea.ture of c.ll, that although 1t
produce:, l:i.ght vi:;i".)lc at distances of the o:rder o-f 1!00 miles, it doeSI1't make
e.. sound. J.:n the case of che Jru.?.uary 30th fell, due to the fact that there had
been o. lcre;e mmibcr of milltc1-"7 :persoxmi:?l alerted, ve wre able to obtain
obeervat:i.ona vith".n a minute af'\,je? the fall occurred end pursued the investiga
tion over E'. d.i.atsncc of 1,600 miles - in Texas mud. prim2r1ly! - in some ten
days• ti!lle inte..'1"V'ie'lf'lng literaJ.J.y hundreds oz people, ,,e saw not one substan..
tio.ted accc,unt ot no:l.ee produced by the meteorite fall.
Dr. Teller:· V.ay I a.ok how many people have seen this one big meteorite?
Dr. laPaz: T'ABt .:a difficult to say. (r~cord blank for abort perl,od) ••••••••
FinaUy, ir: the illten-ogation of such persons, w invariably interview them ae
individuaJ.t1. lie •:;rlod a :f'amily o'f 8 the first night, as Majo:z- Godsoe will
recall.• :i.n·· erviev-lng ..•.. and :tt became apparent at once that there vas same
i;ympe:chetiu influence o.nd we broke j_t off after I think the th:trd or fourth
oboervatiOI~ c.:nd thereafter inte:.'.'Vie,red separately. Ii' you were to search,
howe"ter, the inde::9endent observations of those who were v.tdely separated,
!'.)ossibly stations o! the order of 100, ·there lrere probe.bl.y 100 ditterent
staticna Teporting.
D1·. Teller: What area did that cover?
Dr. taPa8: All o::' New.Mexico, ell the Western half of Texas. I have a map
here mth ume indic:itions of possibly the extent of that.
Hoyt and B:•adbury: Wasn°t that Sunday the 2l~th?
Dr. L~az: Ro, 1-t was definitely Sunday tha 30th. The nevspapers have very
hrlrfull.Y conceelccl mst of the r~levan'G facts relating to tb.is f'ireball. First.,
they described it as a firebaJ.l., second, ·they .••• (record blank tor f'ev seconds).
interi'eri·ec. m.th OSI and mum~t a.ble to do that this time. Thie is the f'ield
map and ,rll.l give 111 various eolore, dots and pencil <iashs, etc. all of the
obsei-vationa obta~ned on the T~a.s search.
Dr. Tellel": All ~:elate to one i'a.1.1?
Dr. 1'..a.Paz: Yee. T'aese lines a.re drat.'D. from points o:f observation. The center,
cs you see. of i,o:·nts of e.ppearerce is SO"Jlevhere Southwest of Amarillo or South
oouthveai of Amarillo. The disappe~.re.nce point is in the vicinity of Lubbock,
Texas. At the time this Ul18 dr...wn, before I 1-ra.s able to make out t?'aalSit
meaoures 111 ·i;b.e v:l.cinity of Alb\:.querque, this ,re.o the beet apparent path of tho
?ircioo.llc. These other illk lines are independent, made by other groups ot
obsej,""Vero i:rorking on the Scmle p:. oble:m. ( record blenlt again for short time) •
Thi:; transtt, Uilfortunately, had. s. needle with a ben·c p1et-..on and it was Mt 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.