Los Alamos Conference on Aerial Phenomena, 1949 (DOE-UAP-D004)

•Con:rerence on AERIAL PIDmO:mNA. Page 6
Dr. Le.Paz: W!th 0&"1e exception, in the ca.a,.., of' Roswell, there e.re two types
of cound aasoci&ted 11ith meteorite fu.lls end, I acsume, associated vi.th the
motion of any very high velocity projectile or missile through tbe air.
T°J'.lere sre vb.at ~rc1c1ats wuld cul reczoneble oounda, end while he would
not acknm,lede;e i J.;, s1multaneouoly with ~.;he c.ppaarcnce or a meteor1te, you
hear c. meteorite, yhc physicist ,;rill refuse to believe the observation.
revert.Jwleas, there i.a a tremendous volume of evidenc indicating that these
m~maloU3 sc'\lllds oc:cu:..-red. Anyone who cioes field work 1n the search for
zaeteo:rites 'tr.Lil c0:.1e acroso possibly 'JUI, oi' the observers who say that,
although my a"i.tention ~ attracted by hn-..ari.Il8, a miining noise, e vhistling
noioc: I looked up and ·Ghere ,mo the fir~bal.l. In o:ther words, this ana:nalnus
1?:ound a.ppe.rently attracts attention to the occurrence. I bnve an article by
Brandon . . • . . one of ·Ghe flO!I.S of the man w~ first investigated the great
creter out :,.n Ar1Zon3, and. s chap by the name or Bart ? vith 1r"ho:n I am not
perao:aally ccgy.z.dnted but a :p~~icist ap_parontly at Princeton, 1n which they
etteJeyt ·w ~ uotify t.b.e occurrence of ano:m.1.ous sound. They express 1 t roughly
in th:f.a fe:aion. Elcctro.I!t3gnctic radiation is net up by
(Dr. Teller excused. to anawer the phone.)
Dr. L3.Pllz: You wouldn't believe it anylray! Ho~r, •.••• electromagii.etic
ra.d.iction iu rectified somehow by the . • . • . changed into sound tbat can be
heard and, •aieref'ore, you cu. he:u- the reetcorite at the seme time you ece it
fell. In the case of the Roswell observation apparently that occurred. t::e
have e;ro,.ql of five men • there uerc nea.r a. stee1 '1!ll0kestack • ond tSVfi1rY
le.ct one of them m;e1.""'0 that they heard at the same time they were va.tchillS
the green f:.reball eo by, c. noise like, se.y., o eaeoline blOV"torch. 'lb:lt ie
ccrtoinly not an ordinary explosives cound. One :core thing in connection
m:'Gb the noirnea. In every other :meteorite f'all, any one meteorite :tall that
I ho.vc inventigated, - that cove1·0 ms.ey yea.rs .. I have ver yet found sn
occasion of n detonating fireball., vithout meteorites caning dovn at all,
:!.:!'l '!rh.ich ·chore vao not sam.e evidence of ala..""l!l of an1rnal s. Chickmls will fly
e:-oun.il to tcy to uet under cover. DogG vill howl o.nd try to get into the
houGe. liorsea vill run o.vay. In the ca6~ of the TCJm.s fall., in epite or the
tranend.oun a.reg:. in llbich the llght 1,-as obcerved., we found not a a1ngl.e caoe
in which ·c.ho w1rool6 vere disturbed. We lm2w;,t the cdtie of a farmer who hwl,
in mmny Te.me, a pond vi.the f'ive-inch layer of ice, tmo reported that e.
~~teorite had foll.en through the ice on tbat pond, had broken a hole. Captain
Neef here pu-'c on o. pair of rubber booto l.1lld very thoroushly searched the pom
wi-'Gho it finding n meteorite. Even 1u that oaoo there vae no evidence of
alarm by ~h~ e.n1nm,Jo. I bel.ievc vith tlmt aummary, I'd better cease operations
and have yo1 o.sk quetrl;icma.
Q-u.estion: llou ?mny obnerved fall.6?
Dr. L9.Paz: I'd like to clasaify thooo into three groups. I ·would 88-,Y that
there ere ten instances that definitely merit the moat eerioue conaidere.tion.
They are strictly e.mlogous to the green fireballs of the night of December 12.
On top of that, there muat be sauething of the order of tmmtymore which ere