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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 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.
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