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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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•Con.fer~nco on AERIAL PHEUO.MlfflA Page 8 the Ranfo1:d area as far as the Pru1tt observations go, a?Jd to the observations that I 81re mentio 1ed. here in the I.!ts Vege.s-Los Alamos e.rea • A veryo. • • • • curious thing has came to light during these investigations. I published not long ago n.n artiole in Science mustrated on the recovery of the • o • • • T~m meteorite. The -'Yi.me that fell: Februnry 18, 1948, the rumor got around sameholf' in l,orthern Kensas and Southern Kansas that it was a Russian bomb, and 1t ,mu e.imed at the geogra1>hical center of the Unived States which is not -very far :."rem •• Apparently, a great many p~le gave credence to thato • • rumor and vere d~llghted mi.en 'tre i'inall.y recovered meteoritee up there and pro·red :l.t waan 8·, eeything but e-.n ol:dinary mcteor1te :fall. Incidentally, 1t did not have the cha:racteristics of tb.e ~ fireba:l.l we're t-Olk1ng about here. There mis a.n air transpor·i; pilot wo made a moet curious observation while fly-.lng near Cher-oourg on January 16, 1946. His observation was tbe observation of a bounning meteor. After 'tfliat I •ve been telling you about the green 1'1::e balls, you. probably think it not unreasonable that a meteorite should bounce but to thr~ meteorlytical mind J..;hat seems very hard to swallow. The interest is ·that oae or your ovn persons here at Los Alamos, one aDd confirmed at least in ~ b;r four othe!' persona, SE',v one of the green f"in:bal.le come down e:od 1 then glido of'f horizontally. lhe bouncing rueteor1te 1a, manually ezplained by having it fom, say sinusoidal motion lying in about the plane at wich the observer ·ma loo't:1.ng so that he first eav the high point of the curve or the peak. Th<! next time it vaa at the peok, it w.e so -r.s:r away that the altitude ,ro.s very :i.cn,, ";fhich will give yo1.1. the 8:l?Pearance of a bouncing meteorite. I otter-~·-; as a :possible explanation. ot course, he may have landed in Paris befcre he J!l£.de t::le Cher'bourg flight 8.Jld then we should disregard the testimoey ent:t1--ely! Mr. Iiewbu::-ger:. Dr. La.Paz, you men..i;ioned, I beli,ve, at one of our other meetingo ·.;hat they had compared the color of this with certain metals? Dr. LaPo.z: Tbatas r-lght. Initially ve coul.a. onl.y ask them what 'they thougb't it looked like. .And we got such interesting responses that ve eventually carried a:.~und a spectrum chart and al.loved. everybody to make hie own choice. Of' course, the use of the apectni:m clwrt lra.S UDI1ecessary il they have a color like one :Lady vho had aroUlld he:r neck a green scarf' vhich she assured. me had er..actly the ceme hue, but norma1ly not having euch tbb1gs to look at, they were plealed to have the chart to loolt at. They will choose, in~ of the cases, ca·cegory 1 o.nd. category 2 a uave length Wieh corresponds to something between 4900 and possibly 5300. Most o:r them Yill tall vuy close to 5218 1,.hich is .1bout the color you get whim you have copper saltcs in the Bunsen buner. I cheeked With Dr. Regener on that and asked him if an alloy had been. used, like, eo.y, copper beryllium, U there wollld be any change in th.st hue, and :ie has ~ssured me thei-e would not. He se.id 1t ,fOUld still g1ve s.wronr.1a·~ e.ppearonce ot bery1.lilllil copper . . . • • You 'trill find 1n probably 1350 of t:..ie 1500 only the mereat trace of copper occurrence. There are e. few z4eteo:l!"ites like . . . . . in South Dakota, mi.ere 11ttle veins of copper have been toUDil, making up possibly .l~ of 1i. Dr. Bradb.iry: Is this true or all meteorites?
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