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This file is a US Atomic Energy Commission transcript of a secret conference on aerial phenomena held at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory on 16 February 1949. A cover letter from the AEC Santa Fe office dated 22 March 1949 accompanies it. Dr. Lincoln LaPaz describes the New Mexico green fireballs, including the Starvation Peak sighting of 12 December 1948 and the 30 January 1949 fall over Texas. He argues they were not conventional meteorites. Edward Teller, Norris Bradbury and others discuss the missing sound and the long horizontal paths but reach no conclusion.
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•Conference on AERIAL PHENOMENA Page 14 I have found in J~e literature only three cases where no detonations, no rumbl:i.n.gs were i--eported. One of those ic ·i;b.e Belgium. observation in 1855, and I thiuk should be diacoun'tt!d. ~ca:1::se meteorists hardly exieted at that tmo. Some :falls occurred end wre not reported at all. The other two are reasonably receut observations~ one in 1921 end one in 1922. They occurred, hcme•,er, :tn the deep South wheJ•e negroes, I think, were the only observers. Even thcr.?, the 1-1hizzing of the :meteorites as tbey t'ell through the air, waa reyol:-ted. I knm, of no case of an actual meteori~.;e where at least the wh.i.zzill8 of the falling body coming down -th..-rough the air has not been repo~ted. Dr. Braub1..try: •• • •••• ? Dr. LaPnz: t-1eteol•ite i'e.lls, I believe that \faS ·the way you phrased it? In the case or a shooting star, of course, you never bear a thine; because the entire mass is, v~ry kindly, vaporizeci. befoz-c it gets, say, within 50 miles of the earth....... Not only noises, but s.ccompanied by sucb Zl.Oises that persons o:r animnla are really frightened out of' their Wite. For example, ·m~ h.o.ve a. beau-ti:rul case where 2 horses killed themselves - in the Norden CO\m~y 1''alls ... they rr.ay have been felled by meteoritea I but I cm inclined to think the.G the noi:cle frightened the'Jll until they dashed into a ditch •• . ••• Anim·lls go crazy. Cot1d:,..•. Yiandelkoi..-n: Do you think 1'1~ u:r:.ueual. no fragments are fOUI!d? Dr. La.Paz: I certo.inly do. And I ·think it unusual, not only 1n the caee of the sreen fireballs, but in view or the fac·t tha·i: a greo.t fall, like the . . . . . fall of October 30, 1947 ., 'llhire :ror the first time we detected a bit of the •1.uter~st on the ps.rtr. ot the military, '~ere too ve recovered nothing. Oc·oober 30, 19!!-7, about ~:48 in the afternoon there was, what appeared to be, a tr~nendous ~eteorite ~all. over the reaervetion area - the Four Corners Aref1.. We got thel-e m'Ghin a ver-y i'ew hours, had excellent observations, wnt back time 8lld age.in, cxhauated groUild search, CAP people in airplanes, we .bs.d e radio centered, we h.ad radio controlled jeeps and a lot of people out wal,k.. ing around not s. trace. I can't give you a color on that becauoe •••.•O Comdr. Mandelkorn: Ordinarily, when phenomena. of' that nature occur, you are able to recover aome material? Dr. La~.z: Yes, some meterial is recovered almost always. If' proper search is conducted. Ue hav , by the t,ra.y, very ·Gb.orough air search conducted by Gill Field Corps of' Intelligence Unit; Dr. Lansberg ot the Research a:od Developiilent Board, very kindly interested himDelt in the problem and the air seo.rchcra resultea. not even in the discovery of a broken branch. The region ls heavlly forreated. If' branches baO: been broken, I th1nlt tbey would have been det,e:ted.. I baren 1 t claaaified ·i:;hs.t particular fall, however, with the green fireba1le and tor this reason: tbat left a train. Another thing vbich I n.tlsht have mentioned - a non:ial meteorite fall . . . . . ·t-rill produce a lOIIS (:Dtb.zrillg i;rain visible by- ds.y and night. Luminous by night and b;y d&y,
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