Green Fireballs
Encyclopedia
Green fireballs are a type of unidentified flying object
which have been sighted in the sky since the late 1940s . Early sightings primarily occurred in the southwestern United States, particularly in New Mexico
. They were once of notable concern to the US government because they were often clustered around sensitive research and military installations, such as Los Alamos
and Sandia National Laboratory, then Sandia base. Furthermore, the strange green balls of light appeared suddenly and were reported many times per month near such New Mexico installations, but hardly anywhere else.
Meteor
expert Dr. Lincoln LaPaz
headed much of the investigation into the fireballs on behalf of the military. LaPaz's conclusion was that the objects displayed too many anomalous characteristics to be a type of meteor and instead were artificial, perhaps secret Russian spy devices. The green fireballs were seen by many people of high repute including LaPaz, distinguished Los Alamos scientists, Kirtland AFB intelligence officers and Air Command Defense personnel . A February 1949 Los Alamos conference attended by aforementioned sighters, Project Sign, world renowned upper atmosphere physicist Dr. Joseph Kaplan, H-bomb scientist Dr. Edward Teller, other scientists and military brass concluded, though far from unanimously, that green fireballs were natural phenomena. To the conference attendees, only the green fire ball source was unknown, their existence was unquestioned.. Secret conferences were convened at Los Alamos to study the phenomenon and in Washington by the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board
.
In December 1949 Project Twinkle, a network of green fireball observation and photographic stations, was established but never fully implemented. It was discontinued two years later, with the official conclusion that the phenomenon was probably natural in origin.
Green fireballs have been given natural, man-made, and extraterrestrial origins and have become associated with both the Cold War
and ufology
. Because of the extensive government paper trail on the phenomenon, many ufologists consider the green fireballs to be among the best documented examples of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
s. Then on the night of December 5, 1948, two separate plane crews, one military (Air Force C-47, Captain Goede, 9:27 p.m., 10 miles (16.1 km) east of Albuquerque) and one civilian (DC-3, Pioneer Flight 63, 9:35 p.m., east of Las Vegas, New Mexico), each asserted that they had seen a "green ball of fire"; the C-47 crew had seen an identical object 22 minutes before near Las Vegas. The military crew described the light as like a huge green meteor except it arched upwards and then flat instead of downwards The civilian crew described the light as having a trajectory too low and flat for a meteor, at first abreast and ahead of them but then appearing to come straight at them on a collision course, forcing the pilot to swerve the plane at which time the object appeared full moon size.
In addition, on the same night, a dozen green fireballs were seen traveling generally north to south between 7:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. by security guards at military installations in the vicinity of Albuquerque and Las Vegas, New Mexico. The sightings near Albuquerque were at Sandia base, a highly sensitive installation where atomic bombs were assembled near Kirtland Air Force Base
. The next night, a similar green light was again spotted for a few seconds over Sandia base.
The following day, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at Kirtland AFB began an official inquiry, fearing the fireballs might be related to espionage
and sabotage
.
Two AFOSI investigators — both of whom were experienced pilots themselves — witnessed a green fireball while flying an aircraft the evening of December 8. They said it was about 2000 feet (609.6 m) above their craft, roughly resembling the green flares commonly used by the Air Force, though "much more intense" and apparently "considerably brighter." The light seemed to burst into full brilliance almost instantaneously. Their report stated that the light was "definitely larger and more brilliant than a shooting star, meteor or flare." The light lasted only a few seconds, moving "almost flat and parallel to the earth". The light's "trajectory then dropped off rapidly" leaving "a trail of fragments reddish orange in color" which then fell towards the ground.
The next day, AFOSI consulted Dr. Lincoln LaPaz
, an astronomer
from the University of New Mexico
and a world renowned meteor
expert who had previously worked on top-secret military projects. LaPaz himself saw a "green fireball" on December 12, which was also seen at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
, enabling LaPaz to determine the trajectory
using triangulation
. From this LaPaz discovered that the center of the trajectory was straight over Los Alamos.
In a classified letter to the Air Force on December 20, LaPaz wrote that the object moved far too slowly to have been a meteor and left no "trail of sparks or dust cloud" as would be typical of meteors flying at low altitudes. Other anomalous characteristics were the intense lime-green color (completely unlike the Geminids
meteor shower
being observed at the same time), low altitude of only 8–10 miles yet exhibiting no sound, flat rather than arced trajectory, and turning on and off like a light switch. Later, he was to add that the sightings were confined almost entirely to northern New Mexico, and no fragments were ever found despite extensive searches using triangulation techniques that had previously been successful in locating meteor fragments.
LaPaz suggested that security patrols at Los Alamos should attempt to photograph the green fireballs. However, the duration of the fireballs was so brief (1–5 seconds) and the onset so unexpected that photography was unsuccessful. Other green fireball sightings occurred over Los Alamos on December 11, 13, 14, 20, 28, and January 6, 1949, raising the level of concern of security and military intelligence. The green fireball on December 20 was most remarkable in that it was seen to change direction, quite impossible for a meteor. Two security guards saw it first descending at a 45-degree angle, then leveling off at an altitude of about two miles (3 km). Even though at most only a few miles distant, no sound was heard, just as with the other green fireballs.
On January 13, 1949, the following message was sent to the Director of Army Intelligence from Fourth Army Headquarters in Texas: "Agencies in New Mexico are greatly concerned . . .Some foreign power [may be] making 'sensing shots' with some super-stratosphere device designed to be self-disintegrating . . . The phenomena [may be] the result of radiological warfare experiments by a foreign power . . . the rays may be lethal or might be . . . the cause of the plane crashes that have occurred recently . . . These incidents are of such great importance, especially as they are occurring in the vicinity of sensitive installations, that a scientific board [should] be sent . . . to study the situation."
On January 30 the brightest and most widely seen green fireball sighting occurred near Roswell, New Mexico
. The next day, the FBI was informed by Army and Air Force intelligence that flying saucers and the fireballs were classified top secret. LaPaz interviewed hundreds of witnesses, with help from the FBI and military intelligence, and again tried to recover fragments by triangulating a trajectory, but was again unsuccessful.
After his own sighting and interviewing numerous witnesses, LaPaz had concluded that "green fireballs" were an artificial phenomenon. On February 8 he met with Dr. Joseph Kaplan, a UCLA geophysicist and member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Kaplan, himself a meteor expert, agreed they could not be conventional meteorite falls and informed LaPaz that he knew of no secret military projects that could explain the fireballs. He found LaPaz's data on the fireballs unsettling and felt an investigation was needed in the name of national security
.
LaPaz's informal scientific study for the Air Force quickly became formal, being called the "Conference on Aerial Phenomena", convening at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in mid-February to review the data. The assembled people—both military personnel and civilian scientists—were informed by LaPaz that the fireballs were not the result of any secret military project, according to Dr. Kaplan. LaPaz reiterated that he was absolutely convinced the green fireballs were not conventional fireballs or meteorites. Dr. Edward Teller
felt they could not be material objects because they made no sound and suggested they might be some unknown atmospheric electrical phenomena. In any event, he thought they could not be foreign probes of some kind.
The scientists felt that a network of instrument stations should be established to photograph and analyze the fireballs. Despite the recommendation and the continuation of the green fireballs at a rate of about half a dozen a month, LaPaz and AFOSI oddly encountered both resistance and apathy from Air Force authorities responsible for setting up such a network.
By April 1949 similar sights were reported over a nuclear-weapons storage facility at Fort Hood in Texas
. The intrusions were deemed so serious that, unlike the Air Force, the Army quickly set up an observation network. Sightings continued through August, the most spectacular being on June 6 when a hovering orange light, 30 to 70 feet (21.3 m) across and a mile in the air, was spotted. Finally, it started moving in level flight and then burst into small particles.
On July 24 a green fireball was observed falling close to Socorro, New Mexico
. Dust samples were collected at the School of Mines there and were found to contain large particles of copper
. LaPaz found this highly significant, since copper burns with the same yellow-green color characteristic of the green fireballs. He also noted that if the copper particles came from the green fireballs, then they could not be conventional meteorites, since copper was never found in dust of meteoric origin. LaPaz suggested that further air and ground samples be taken in areas where the fireballs were seen.
At the same time, AFOSI informed LaPaz on investigations of "anomalous luminous phenomena" between early June and early August. Many of the green fireballs were now descending on vertical paths, whereas initially they almost always traveled horizontally.
Another Los Alamos conference convened on October 14. No one disputed the reality of the phenomena and nobody could explain it. Among the puzzles were the sudden onset and the high concentration of sightings in New Mexico, quite unlike natural phenomena. Despite this, it was decided the fireballs were probably atmospheric in origin. Instrumented observations—photographic, triangulation, and spectroscopic—were deemed essential to solving the mystery.
On November 3 Dr. Kaplan brought the plan to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board at the Pentagon
. Kaplan by this time had decided the fireballs might be a new type of rare meteor. Nonetheless, most of the scientists remained puzzled by the brightness, trajectories, and absence of sound. Seeming to contradict his meteor hypothesis, Kaplan also said, "This high selectivity of direction seems to indicate that some group was trying to pinpoint Los Alamos with a new sort of weapon." Concerns were expressed about the possibility of panic and the need for continued secrecy.
in February 1950. Only one other instrument post was ever set up. LaPaz criticized Project Twinkle as inadequate, arguing the green fireballs were worthy of "intensive, systematic investigation". Twinkle did manage to record a few events, but the data collected were said to be incomplete in the final Twinkle report. Besides, it was stated, no funding had been provided for follow-up data analysis. In addition, the fireball activity near the observation posts seemed to virtually disappear, as noted in a report from September: "It may be considered significant that fireballs have ceased abruptly as soon as a systematic watch was set up."
Over the objections of LaPaz and others, the final report on Project Twinkle (see external links) concluded the green lights were probably a natural event, maybe sunspot activity or an unusual concentration of meteors. The report stated, "There has been no indication that even the somewhat strange observations often called 'Green Fireballs' are anything but natural phenomena." Twinkle was discontinued in December 1951.
Despite efforts of the final Twinkle report to downplay the fireballs and other studied UFO phenomena as natural, a follow-up report in February 1952 from the USAF Directorate of Intelligence disagreed:
It was also stated that some of the scientists continued to believe they were Russian spy devices. Besides LaPaz, this included Dr. Anthony Mirarchi, the first director of Project Twinkle.
The following month, another letter from the Directorate of Intelligence to the Research Division of the Directorate of Research and Development again stated that the report should not be publicly released, since no real solution had been provided:
, director of the USAF Project Blue Book
UFO study, stated he visited the Los Alamos National Laboratory
in early 1952 and spoke to various scientists and technicians there, all of whom had experienced green fireball sightings. None of them believed they had a conventional explanation, such as a new natural phenomenon, secret government project, or psychologically enlarged meteors. Instead, the scientists speculated that they were extraterrestrial
probes "projected into our atmosphere from a 'spaceship
' hovering several hundred miles above the earth." Ruppelt commented, "Two years ago I would have been amazed to hear a group of reputable scientists make such a startling statement. Now, however, I took it as a matter of course. I'd heard the same type of statement many times before from equally qualified groups."
However, such opinions were apparently not unanimous. Immediately afterward, Ruppelt said he visited LaPaz in Albuquerque. Ruppelt reported that "LaPaz said that some people, including Dr. Joseph Kaplan and Dr. Edward Teller, thought that the green fireballs were natural meteors. But he didn't think so." LaPaz then reiterated the various anomalous characteristics which led him to believe the fireballs were artificial. Ruppelt also mentioned that he had previously met with Kaplan earlier in Los Angeles, and although Kaplan respected LaPaz professionally, he was not convinced that the fireballs were man-made.
Ruppelt further mentioned that he discussed the issue with some of the people who had been at the Los Alamos meeting in February 1949, but did not provide any names. "People who were at that meeting have told me that Dr. LaPaz's theory was very interesting and that each point was carefully considered. But evidently it wasn't conclusive enough because when the conference broke up, after two days, it was decided that the green fireballs were a natural phenomenon of some kind." However, despite what Ruppelt may have been told and then reported in his book, there is nothing in the actual transcript of the conference that indicates that such a group decision was ever reached. Instead, opinions remained divided, much puzzlement was expressed, and further research was recommended to help resolve the issue.
, who in 1956 said he had seen three, and Dr. Donald Menzel, who sighted one in May 1949 near Alamogordo. In a letter to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, Menzel admitted the phenomenon must be real and expressed puzzlement, wondering why the fireballs should be so confined to New Mexico if they were natural phenomena. Menzel eventually became a famous UFO debunker
, and in two of his books stated he was never puzzled by his sighting, instantly identifying the object as an ordinary meteor fireball.
from November 1951 was mentioned. LaPaz again repeated why the fireballs could not be ordinary meteors. The article also described LaPaz's UFO sighting near Roswell, New Mexico
, on July 10, 1947, about the same time as the famous Roswell UFO incident
. LaPaz, however, remained anonymous. Also described was a 1949 UFO sighting by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh
, the discoverer of Pluto
(Life magazine article).
In January 1953 LaPaz was quoted in newspaper articles saying the green fireballs were artificial devices and might be a Soviet missile scouting the U.S. and other parts of the world. According to Ruppelt, the green fireballs reappeared in September 1954. One the size of a full moon was seen streaking southeast across Colorado, lighting up Denver, and into northern New Mexico. It was seen by thousands at a football stadium in Santa Fe
. LaPaz was called back in to investigate, but told a reporter that he did not expect to find anything. From April 3 to 9, 1955, five green fireballs were reported in New Mexico and two in northern California
. At least three were reported within minutes of one another midmorning of April 5. LaPaz stated, "This is a record . . . I'm sure the yellow-green fireballs aren't ordinary meteorite falls. I've been observing the skies since 1914, and I've never seen any meteoritic fireballs like them." In a visit by astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek
in March 1965, LaPaz told Hynek that one had been reported as recently as the previous Christmas (Steiger, p. 132).
clouds as winds carried them into other states.
Hastings cites a number of examples from Wilson's research. Perhaps the most graphic example occurred during the "Buster series"
of atomic tests on November 1 and 5, 1951, which were accompanied by so many reported green fireball sightings in states affected by fallout, that even the New York Times carried a story on November 9, "Southwest's 7 Fireballs in 11 Days Called 'Without Parallel in History'." Dr. LaPaz was widely quoted saying, "There has never been a rate of meteorite fall in history that has been one-fifth as high as the present fall. If that rate should continue, I would suspect the phenonenom is not natural... [they] don't behave like ordinary meteorites at all."
Initially the green fireballs were reported in Arizona and New Mexico as the fallout clouds left Nevada, but as the clouds spread out and drifted further east, south, and north, green fireball sightings then followed in Texas, northern Mexico, Iowa, Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, and New York. Portions of the fallout also drifted west into the Los Angeles area on November 7, followed the next day by a green fireball sighting there.
Time magazine
also took note on November 19, in a somewhat satirical article titled "Great Balls of Fire." In the article, they lightheartedly speculated that the green fireballs were connected to the atomic testing.
Summarizing the rash of fireball sightings in November 1951, Wilson commented, "Some researchers imply that the radioactivity itself was producing the green fireballs, possibly as an electrostatic effect. Dr. Lincoln La Paz thought otherwise. He said that the green fireballs move too regularly and had been sighted earlier, on a number of occasions, at the Los Alamos and Sandia atomic labs, where no measurable radiation was released, as well as at Killeen Base, in Texas, where the weapons were simply stored. So it seems that the electrostatic theory doesn't stand up."
Wilson concluded, "We can make one statement of fact: the fireball sightings—green or otherwise—occurred in areas that received radioactive debris from Operation Buster. Was this just coincidence, or a planned occurrence? We simply don't know, so all we can do is to continue to collect data and see if some overwhelmingly convincing pattern emerges." Wilson nonetheless felt the evidence pointed to the fireballs being real, artificial, and those responsible having some sort of agenda."
Hastings then noted similar comments by Project Blue Book head Edward Ruppelt, citing the opinion of a number of Los Alamos scientists on the green fireballs when he visited in early 1952, that they might be extraterrestrial probes from an orbiting spacecraft. (See Opinions of Los Alamos scientists above.)
UFO report, astronomer William K. Hartmann thought the green fireballs might be explained by lunar material ejected during recent meteor impacts on the Moon's surface http://www.ncas.org/condon/text/s6chap02.htm. Hartmann's reasoning was that such ejected lunar meteors could account for the abnormally low velocities calculated for the green fireballs by LaPaz of about Earth's escape velocity
, that is, much lower than normal meteor velocities. Hartmann further claimed, without explanation or elaboration, that "the predicted characteristics match those of the 'green fireball episode'."
However, this theory would not account for the many other anomalous characteristics of the green fireballs detailed by LaPaz, such as strong confinement to the New Mexico area, lime-green color, low altitude yet absence of sound, absence of smoke trail, and absence of meteorite fragments. Despite the entirely speculative nature of Hartmann's hypothesis, it is sometimes cited as scientific fact: for example, astronomer Carl Sagan
presented it as such in his Cosmos
television series in 1980 .
to interview witnesses and reconstruct the trajectory of the crash object (affidavit of one witness). One counterintelligence agent claimed LaPaz told him he thought the object got into trouble, touched down for repairs, took off again and then exploded. The two of them then speculated about possible origins. LaPaz allegedly held the opinion that the object was an unoccupied extraterrestrial probe.
However, UFO researcher Karl T. Pflock
discovered some facts that might call into question some aspects of this testimony. For example, one of the purported witnesses to LaPaz's Roswell involvement claimed that LaPaz spoke fluent Spanish, but by interviewing family members, Pflock discovered that LaPaz did not speak any Spanish.
Besides LaPaz's consultations with the Air Force on the green fireballs, in 1954 he was also involved with astronomer Clyde Tombaugh
in a search for near-Earth orbiting satellites on behalf of the Army (several years before Sputnik became the first man-made satellite). In August 1954 a story broke in the press that Tombaugh and LaPaz had found two of the satellites only 400 and 600 miles (965.6 km) out that had recently come into orbit. LaPaz at first vehemently denied that he was involved, and later denied that anything had been found (see Clyde Tombaugh
for details).
policeman named Lonnie Zamora
claimed to have seen a small egg-shaped object land, saw two humanoid figures near the object, and then when he approached to within 50 feet (15.2 m), the object blasted off and rapidly disappeared. LaPaz interviewed Zamora and vouched for him as a witness.
, a consultant to the Air Force's Project Blue Book
. Hynek was also investigating the Socorro incident. According to Hynek, LaPaz felt the fireballs were the most important part of the UFO phenomenon. He remained convinced that the fireballs' anomalous characteristics had never been adequately explained by the official investigation. LaPaz continued to think the green fireballs were artificial, but now believed the fireballs, and also the Socorro craft, to be highly secret projects of the U.S. government. He also accused Hynek, Project Blue Book, and others of being part of "a grand cover-up for something the government does not want discussed".
pilot had a near collision with three unusual green fireballs near Manchester
, England, and were also sighted near a nuclear power plant
in Suffolk
in 1983 (Randles and Houghe, p. 92).
There was also a sighting of a green fireball in Cold Lake, AB, Canada in the summer of 2011, Cold lake notably has the largest air force base in all of canada and after several local protests in the 1980's cold lake no longer has nuclear weapons.
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
which have been sighted in the sky since the late 1940s . Early sightings primarily occurred in the southwestern United States, particularly in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. They were once of notable concern to the US government because they were often clustered around sensitive research and military installations, such as Los Alamos
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
and Sandia National Laboratory, then Sandia base. Furthermore, the strange green balls of light appeared suddenly and were reported many times per month near such New Mexico installations, but hardly anywhere else.
Meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
expert Dr. Lincoln LaPaz
Lincoln LaPaz
Lincoln LaPaz was an American astronomer from the University of New Mexico and a pioneer in the study of meteors.He was born in Wichita, Kansas on February 12, 1897 to Charles Melchior LaPaz and Emma Josephine . He earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1920 in mathematics at Fairmont College and also...
headed much of the investigation into the fireballs on behalf of the military. LaPaz's conclusion was that the objects displayed too many anomalous characteristics to be a type of meteor and instead were artificial, perhaps secret Russian spy devices. The green fireballs were seen by many people of high repute including LaPaz, distinguished Los Alamos scientists, Kirtland AFB intelligence officers and Air Command Defense personnel . A February 1949 Los Alamos conference attended by aforementioned sighters, Project Sign, world renowned upper atmosphere physicist Dr. Joseph Kaplan, H-bomb scientist Dr. Edward Teller, other scientists and military brass concluded, though far from unanimously, that green fireballs were natural phenomena. To the conference attendees, only the green fire ball source was unknown, their existence was unquestioned.. Secret conferences were convened at Los Alamos to study the phenomenon and in Washington by the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board
USAF Scientific Advisory Board
The United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board is a military unit that provides forecasts of long-range science and technology.-Chronology:...
.
In December 1949 Project Twinkle, a network of green fireball observation and photographic stations, was established but never fully implemented. It was discontinued two years later, with the official conclusion that the phenomenon was probably natural in origin.
Green fireballs have been given natural, man-made, and extraterrestrial origins and have become associated with both the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and ufology
Ufology
Ufology is a neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study reports and associated evidence of unidentified flying objects . UFOs have been subject to various investigations over the years by governments, independent groups, and scientists...
. Because of the extensive government paper trail on the phenomenon, many ufologists consider the green fireballs to be among the best documented examples of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
Early green fireballs
Some early reports came from late November 1948, but were at first dismissed as military green flareFlare (pyrotechnic)
A flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for signalling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications...
s. Then on the night of December 5, 1948, two separate plane crews, one military (Air Force C-47, Captain Goede, 9:27 p.m., 10 miles (16.1 km) east of Albuquerque) and one civilian (DC-3, Pioneer Flight 63, 9:35 p.m., east of Las Vegas, New Mexico), each asserted that they had seen a "green ball of fire"; the C-47 crew had seen an identical object 22 minutes before near Las Vegas. The military crew described the light as like a huge green meteor except it arched upwards and then flat instead of downwards The civilian crew described the light as having a trajectory too low and flat for a meteor, at first abreast and ahead of them but then appearing to come straight at them on a collision course, forcing the pilot to swerve the plane at which time the object appeared full moon size.
In addition, on the same night, a dozen green fireballs were seen traveling generally north to south between 7:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. by security guards at military installations in the vicinity of Albuquerque and Las Vegas, New Mexico. The sightings near Albuquerque were at Sandia base, a highly sensitive installation where atomic bombs were assembled near Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland...
. The next night, a similar green light was again spotted for a few seconds over Sandia base.
The following day, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at Kirtland AFB began an official inquiry, fearing the fireballs might be related to espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
and sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
.
Two AFOSI investigators — both of whom were experienced pilots themselves — witnessed a green fireball while flying an aircraft the evening of December 8. They said it was about 2000 feet (609.6 m) above their craft, roughly resembling the green flares commonly used by the Air Force, though "much more intense" and apparently "considerably brighter." The light seemed to burst into full brilliance almost instantaneously. Their report stated that the light was "definitely larger and more brilliant than a shooting star, meteor or flare." The light lasted only a few seconds, moving "almost flat and parallel to the earth". The light's "trajectory then dropped off rapidly" leaving "a trail of fragments reddish orange in color" which then fell towards the ground.
The next day, AFOSI consulted Dr. Lincoln LaPaz
Lincoln LaPaz
Lincoln LaPaz was an American astronomer from the University of New Mexico and a pioneer in the study of meteors.He was born in Wichita, Kansas on February 12, 1897 to Charles Melchior LaPaz and Emma Josephine . He earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1920 in mathematics at Fairmont College and also...
, an astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
from the University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
and a world renowned meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
expert who had previously worked on top-secret military projects. LaPaz himself saw a "green fireball" on December 12, which was also seen at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
, enabling LaPaz to determine the trajectory
Trajectory
A trajectory is the path that a moving object follows through space as a function of time. The object might be a projectile or a satellite, for example. It thus includes the meaning of orbit—the path of a planet, an asteroid or a comet as it travels around a central mass...
using triangulation
Triangulation
In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly...
. From this LaPaz discovered that the center of the trajectory was straight over Los Alamos.
In a classified letter to the Air Force on December 20, LaPaz wrote that the object moved far too slowly to have been a meteor and left no "trail of sparks or dust cloud" as would be typical of meteors flying at low altitudes. Other anomalous characteristics were the intense lime-green color (completely unlike the Geminids
Geminids
The Geminids are a meteor shower caused by the object 3200 Phaethon, which is thought to be a Palladian asteroid. This would make the Geminids, together with the Quadrantids, the only major meteor showers not originating from a comet...
meteor shower
Meteor shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...
being observed at the same time), low altitude of only 8–10 miles yet exhibiting no sound, flat rather than arced trajectory, and turning on and off like a light switch. Later, he was to add that the sightings were confined almost entirely to northern New Mexico, and no fragments were ever found despite extensive searches using triangulation techniques that had previously been successful in locating meteor fragments.
LaPaz suggested that security patrols at Los Alamos should attempt to photograph the green fireballs. However, the duration of the fireballs was so brief (1–5 seconds) and the onset so unexpected that photography was unsuccessful. Other green fireball sightings occurred over Los Alamos on December 11, 13, 14, 20, 28, and January 6, 1949, raising the level of concern of security and military intelligence. The green fireball on December 20 was most remarkable in that it was seen to change direction, quite impossible for a meteor. Two security guards saw it first descending at a 45-degree angle, then leveling off at an altitude of about two miles (3 km). Even though at most only a few miles distant, no sound was heard, just as with the other green fireballs.
On January 13, 1949, the following message was sent to the Director of Army Intelligence from Fourth Army Headquarters in Texas: "Agencies in New Mexico are greatly concerned . . .Some foreign power [may be] making 'sensing shots' with some super-stratosphere device designed to be self-disintegrating . . . The phenomena [may be] the result of radiological warfare experiments by a foreign power . . . the rays may be lethal or might be . . . the cause of the plane crashes that have occurred recently . . . These incidents are of such great importance, especially as they are occurring in the vicinity of sensitive installations, that a scientific board [should] be sent . . . to study the situation."
On January 30 the brightest and most widely seen green fireball sighting occurred near Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...
. The next day, the FBI was informed by Army and Air Force intelligence that flying saucers and the fireballs were classified top secret. LaPaz interviewed hundreds of witnesses, with help from the FBI and military intelligence, and again tried to recover fragments by triangulating a trajectory, but was again unsuccessful.
After his own sighting and interviewing numerous witnesses, LaPaz had concluded that "green fireballs" were an artificial phenomenon. On February 8 he met with Dr. Joseph Kaplan, a UCLA geophysicist and member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Kaplan, himself a meteor expert, agreed they could not be conventional meteorite falls and informed LaPaz that he knew of no secret military projects that could explain the fireballs. He found LaPaz's data on the fireballs unsettling and felt an investigation was needed in the name of national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
.
LaPaz's informal scientific study for the Air Force quickly became formal, being called the "Conference on Aerial Phenomena", convening at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in mid-February to review the data. The assembled people—both military personnel and civilian scientists—were informed by LaPaz that the fireballs were not the result of any secret military project, according to Dr. Kaplan. LaPaz reiterated that he was absolutely convinced the green fireballs were not conventional fireballs or meteorites. Dr. Edward Teller
Edward Teller
Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," even though he did not care for the title. Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy , and surface physics...
felt they could not be material objects because they made no sound and suggested they might be some unknown atmospheric electrical phenomena. In any event, he thought they could not be foreign probes of some kind.
The scientists felt that a network of instrument stations should be established to photograph and analyze the fireballs. Despite the recommendation and the continuation of the green fireballs at a rate of about half a dozen a month, LaPaz and AFOSI oddly encountered both resistance and apathy from Air Force authorities responsible for setting up such a network.
By April 1949 similar sights were reported over a nuclear-weapons storage facility at Fort Hood in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. The intrusions were deemed so serious that, unlike the Air Force, the Army quickly set up an observation network. Sightings continued through August, the most spectacular being on June 6 when a hovering orange light, 30 to 70 feet (21.3 m) across and a mile in the air, was spotted. Finally, it started moving in level flight and then burst into small particles.
On July 24 a green fireball was observed falling close to Socorro, New Mexico
Socorro, New Mexico
Socorro is a city in Socorro County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It stands in the Rio Grande Valley at an elevation of . The population was 9,051 at the 2010 census...
. Dust samples were collected at the School of Mines there and were found to contain large particles of copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
. LaPaz found this highly significant, since copper burns with the same yellow-green color characteristic of the green fireballs. He also noted that if the copper particles came from the green fireballs, then they could not be conventional meteorites, since copper was never found in dust of meteoric origin. LaPaz suggested that further air and ground samples be taken in areas where the fireballs were seen.
At the same time, AFOSI informed LaPaz on investigations of "anomalous luminous phenomena" between early June and early August. Many of the green fireballs were now descending on vertical paths, whereas initially they almost always traveled horizontally.
Another Los Alamos conference convened on October 14. No one disputed the reality of the phenomena and nobody could explain it. Among the puzzles were the sudden onset and the high concentration of sightings in New Mexico, quite unlike natural phenomena. Despite this, it was decided the fireballs were probably atmospheric in origin. Instrumented observations—photographic, triangulation, and spectroscopic—were deemed essential to solving the mystery.
On November 3 Dr. Kaplan brought the plan to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board at the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
. Kaplan by this time had decided the fireballs might be a new type of rare meteor. Nonetheless, most of the scientists remained puzzled by the brightness, trajectories, and absence of sound. Seeming to contradict his meteor hypothesis, Kaplan also said, "This high selectivity of direction seems to indicate that some group was trying to pinpoint Los Alamos with a new sort of weapon." Concerns were expressed about the possibility of panic and the need for continued secrecy.
Project Twinkle
Finally, on December 20 after nearly a year of foot-dragging, the instrument observation program was approved and Project Twinkle was born. The first instrument post (consisting of two officers) was established at Holloman Air Force BaseHolloman Air Force Base
Holloman Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located six miles southwest of the central business district of Alamogordo, a city in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. The base was named in honor of Col. George V. Holloman, a pioneer in guided missile research...
in February 1950. Only one other instrument post was ever set up. LaPaz criticized Project Twinkle as inadequate, arguing the green fireballs were worthy of "intensive, systematic investigation". Twinkle did manage to record a few events, but the data collected were said to be incomplete in the final Twinkle report. Besides, it was stated, no funding had been provided for follow-up data analysis. In addition, the fireball activity near the observation posts seemed to virtually disappear, as noted in a report from September: "It may be considered significant that fireballs have ceased abruptly as soon as a systematic watch was set up."
Over the objections of LaPaz and others, the final report on Project Twinkle (see external links) concluded the green lights were probably a natural event, maybe sunspot activity or an unusual concentration of meteors. The report stated, "There has been no indication that even the somewhat strange observations often called 'Green Fireballs' are anything but natural phenomena." Twinkle was discontinued in December 1951.
Despite efforts of the final Twinkle report to downplay the fireballs and other studied UFO phenomena as natural, a follow-up report in February 1952 from the USAF Directorate of Intelligence disagreed:
- "The Scientific Advisory Board Secretariat has suggested that this project not be declassified for a variety of reasons, chief among which is that no scientific explanation for any of the fireballs and other phenomena was revealed by the report and that some reputable scientists still believe that the observed phenomena are man-made."
It was also stated that some of the scientists continued to believe they were Russian spy devices. Besides LaPaz, this included Dr. Anthony Mirarchi, the first director of Project Twinkle.
The following month, another letter from the Directorate of Intelligence to the Research Division of the Directorate of Research and Development again stated that the report should not be publicly released, since no real solution had been provided:
- "It is believed that a release of the information to the public in its present condition would cause undue speculation and give rise to unwarranted fears among the populace such as occurred in previous releases on unidentified flying objects. This results from releases when there has been no real solution."
Opinions of Los Alamos scientists
Edward J. RuppeltEdward J. Ruppelt
Edward J. Ruppelt was a United States Air Force officer probably best-known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of unidentified flying objects...
, director of the USAF Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects conducted by the United States Air Force. Started in 1952, it was the second revival of such a study...
UFO study, stated he visited the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
in early 1952 and spoke to various scientists and technicians there, all of whom had experienced green fireball sightings. None of them believed they had a conventional explanation, such as a new natural phenomenon, secret government project, or psychologically enlarged meteors. Instead, the scientists speculated that they were extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
probes "projected into our atmosphere from a 'spaceship
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
' hovering several hundred miles above the earth." Ruppelt commented, "Two years ago I would have been amazed to hear a group of reputable scientists make such a startling statement. Now, however, I took it as a matter of course. I'd heard the same type of statement many times before from equally qualified groups."
However, such opinions were apparently not unanimous. Immediately afterward, Ruppelt said he visited LaPaz in Albuquerque. Ruppelt reported that "LaPaz said that some people, including Dr. Joseph Kaplan and Dr. Edward Teller, thought that the green fireballs were natural meteors. But he didn't think so." LaPaz then reiterated the various anomalous characteristics which led him to believe the fireballs were artificial. Ruppelt also mentioned that he had previously met with Kaplan earlier in Los Angeles, and although Kaplan respected LaPaz professionally, he was not convinced that the fireballs were man-made.
Ruppelt further mentioned that he discussed the issue with some of the people who had been at the Los Alamos meeting in February 1949, but did not provide any names. "People who were at that meeting have told me that Dr. LaPaz's theory was very interesting and that each point was carefully considered. But evidently it wasn't conclusive enough because when the conference broke up, after two days, it was decided that the green fireballs were a natural phenomenon of some kind." However, despite what Ruppelt may have been told and then reported in his book, there is nothing in the actual transcript of the conference that indicates that such a group decision was ever reached. Instead, opinions remained divided, much puzzlement was expressed, and further research was recommended to help resolve the issue.
Astronomer sightings of green fireballs
Other astronomers besides LaPaz known to have sighted green fireballs in New Mexico during this period were Clyde TombaughClyde Tombaugh
Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer. Although he is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper Belt, Tombaugh also discovered many asteroids; he also called for serious scientific...
, who in 1956 said he had seen three, and Dr. Donald Menzel, who sighted one in May 1949 near Alamogordo. In a letter to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, Menzel admitted the phenomenon must be real and expressed puzzlement, wondering why the fireballs should be so confined to New Mexico if they were natural phenomena. Menzel eventually became a famous UFO debunker
Debunker
A debunker is an individual who attempts to discredit and contradict claims as being false, exaggerated or pretentious. The term is closely associated with skeptical investigation of, or in some cases irrational resistance to, controversial topics such as U.F.O.s, claimed paranormal phenomena,...
, and in two of his books stated he was never puzzled by his sighting, instantly identifying the object as an ordinary meteor fireball.
Green fireballs after Project Twinkle
Despite the discontinuation of Project Twinkle, green fireballs were still occasionally sighted and LaPaz continued to comment. In early November, 1951, a month before the official termination of Twinkle, a huge flurry of green fireball sightings occurred in the Southwest and other states. LaPaz was widely quoted saying that such a concentration of fireballs was unprecedented in history, and he didn't believe they were a natural phenomenon. (more details below in Atomic testing and fallout theory) In April 1952 the green fireballs and Project Twinkle were written up in a famous Life magazine article titled "Have We Visitors From Space?" A recent green fireball incident over ArizonaArizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
from November 1951 was mentioned. LaPaz again repeated why the fireballs could not be ordinary meteors. The article also described LaPaz's UFO sighting near Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...
, on July 10, 1947, about the same time as the famous Roswell UFO incident
Roswell UFO incident
The Roswell UFO Incident was the recovery of an object that crashed in the general vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico, in June or July 1947, allegedly an extra-terrestrial spacecraft and its alien occupants. Since the late 1970s the incident has been the subject of intense controversy and of...
. LaPaz, however, remained anonymous. Also described was a 1949 UFO sighting by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer. Although he is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper Belt, Tombaugh also discovered many asteroids; he also called for serious scientific...
, the discoverer of Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
(Life magazine article).
In January 1953 LaPaz was quoted in newspaper articles saying the green fireballs were artificial devices and might be a Soviet missile scouting the U.S. and other parts of the world. According to Ruppelt, the green fireballs reappeared in September 1954. One the size of a full moon was seen streaking southeast across Colorado, lighting up Denver, and into northern New Mexico. It was seen by thousands at a football stadium in Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. LaPaz was called back in to investigate, but told a reporter that he did not expect to find anything. From April 3 to 9, 1955, five green fireballs were reported in New Mexico and two in northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
. At least three were reported within minutes of one another midmorning of April 5. LaPaz stated, "This is a record . . . I'm sure the yellow-green fireballs aren't ordinary meteorite falls. I've been observing the skies since 1914, and I've never seen any meteoritic fireballs like them." In a visit by astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek
J. Allen Hynek
Dr. Josef Allen Hynek was a United States astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive names: Project Sign , Project Grudge , and Project Blue Book...
in March 1965, LaPaz told Hynek that one had been reported as recently as the previous Christmas (Steiger, p. 132).
Atomic testing and fallout theory
A recent theory of the green fireballs was introduced in Robert Hastings' 2008 book UFOs and Nukes. Although it had been a concern from the beginning to military intelligence that the sightings seemed concentrated near sensitive nuclear facilities such as Los Alamos and Kirtland AFB, researcher Dan Wilson discovered that later heavy concentrations of sightings might also be correlated with atomic tests that began in Nevada in January 1951. In particular, green fireball sightings, and other reported UFO sightings, seemed to follow the drift of the falloutFallout
Fallout or nuclear fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion.Fallout may also refer to:*Fallout , a 1997 post-apocalyptic computer role-playing game released by Interplay Entertainment...
clouds as winds carried them into other states.
Hastings cites a number of examples from Wilson's research. Perhaps the most graphic example occurred during the "Buster series"
Operation Buster-Jangle
Operation Buster-Jangle was a series of seven nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States in late 1951 at the Nevada Test Site. Buster-Jangle was the first joint test program between the DOD and Los Alamos National Laboratories. 6,500 troops were involved in the Desert Rock I, II, and III...
of atomic tests on November 1 and 5, 1951, which were accompanied by so many reported green fireball sightings in states affected by fallout, that even the New York Times carried a story on November 9, "Southwest's 7 Fireballs in 11 Days Called 'Without Parallel in History'." Dr. LaPaz was widely quoted saying, "There has never been a rate of meteorite fall in history that has been one-fifth as high as the present fall. If that rate should continue, I would suspect the phenonenom is not natural... [they] don't behave like ordinary meteorites at all."
Initially the green fireballs were reported in Arizona and New Mexico as the fallout clouds left Nevada, but as the clouds spread out and drifted further east, south, and north, green fireball sightings then followed in Texas, northern Mexico, Iowa, Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, and New York. Portions of the fallout also drifted west into the Los Angeles area on November 7, followed the next day by a green fireball sighting there.
Time magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
also took note on November 19, in a somewhat satirical article titled "Great Balls of Fire." In the article, they lightheartedly speculated that the green fireballs were connected to the atomic testing.
Summarizing the rash of fireball sightings in November 1951, Wilson commented, "Some researchers imply that the radioactivity itself was producing the green fireballs, possibly as an electrostatic effect. Dr. Lincoln La Paz thought otherwise. He said that the green fireballs move too regularly and had been sighted earlier, on a number of occasions, at the Los Alamos and Sandia atomic labs, where no measurable radiation was released, as well as at Killeen Base, in Texas, where the weapons were simply stored. So it seems that the electrostatic theory doesn't stand up."
Wilson concluded, "We can make one statement of fact: the fireball sightings—green or otherwise—occurred in areas that received radioactive debris from Operation Buster. Was this just coincidence, or a planned occurrence? We simply don't know, so all we can do is to continue to collect data and see if some overwhelmingly convincing pattern emerges." Wilson nonetheless felt the evidence pointed to the fireballs being real, artificial, and those responsible having some sort of agenda."
Hastings then noted similar comments by Project Blue Book head Edward Ruppelt, citing the opinion of a number of Los Alamos scientists on the green fireballs when he visited in early 1952, that they might be extraterrestrial probes from an orbiting spacecraft. (See Opinions of Los Alamos scientists above.)
Condon Committee theory
In the 1969 Condon CommitteeCondon Committee
The Condon Committee was the informal name of the University of Colorado UFO Project, a group funded by the United States Air Force from 1966 to 1968 at the University of Colorado to study unidentified flying objects under the direction of physicist Edward Condon...
UFO report, astronomer William K. Hartmann thought the green fireballs might be explained by lunar material ejected during recent meteor impacts on the Moon's surface http://www.ncas.org/condon/text/s6chap02.htm. Hartmann's reasoning was that such ejected lunar meteors could account for the abnormally low velocities calculated for the green fireballs by LaPaz of about Earth's escape velocity
Escape velocity
In physics, escape velocity is the speed at which the kinetic energy plus the gravitational potential energy of an object is zero gravitational potential energy is negative since gravity is an attractive force and the potential is defined to be zero at infinity...
, that is, much lower than normal meteor velocities. Hartmann further claimed, without explanation or elaboration, that "the predicted characteristics match those of the 'green fireball episode'."
However, this theory would not account for the many other anomalous characteristics of the green fireballs detailed by LaPaz, such as strong confinement to the New Mexico area, lime-green color, low altitude yet absence of sound, absence of smoke trail, and absence of meteorite fragments. Despite the entirely speculative nature of Hartmann's hypothesis, it is sometimes cited as scientific fact: for example, astronomer Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
presented it as such in his Cosmos
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It was executive-produced by Adrian Malone, produced by David Kennard, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles and Gregory Andorfer, and directed by the producers, David...
television series in 1980 .
Roswell Incident (1947)
At least three witnesses, including two involved with Army and Air Force counterintelligence, also claimed that LaPaz was brought in after the Roswell UFO incidentRoswell UFO incident
The Roswell UFO Incident was the recovery of an object that crashed in the general vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico, in June or July 1947, allegedly an extra-terrestrial spacecraft and its alien occupants. Since the late 1970s the incident has been the subject of intense controversy and of...
to interview witnesses and reconstruct the trajectory of the crash object (affidavit of one witness). One counterintelligence agent claimed LaPaz told him he thought the object got into trouble, touched down for repairs, took off again and then exploded. The two of them then speculated about possible origins. LaPaz allegedly held the opinion that the object was an unoccupied extraterrestrial probe.
However, UFO researcher Karl T. Pflock
Karl T. Pflock
Karl Tomlinson Pflock was a UFO researcher and author of both fiction and non-fiction. He was best known for his book Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe.-Background:...
discovered some facts that might call into question some aspects of this testimony. For example, one of the purported witnesses to LaPaz's Roswell involvement claimed that LaPaz spoke fluent Spanish, but by interviewing family members, Pflock discovered that LaPaz did not speak any Spanish.
Anomalous satellites (mid-1950s)
Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer. Although he is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper Belt, Tombaugh also discovered many asteroids; he also called for serious scientific...
in a search for near-Earth orbiting satellites on behalf of the Army (several years before Sputnik became the first man-made satellite). In August 1954 a story broke in the press that Tombaugh and LaPaz had found two of the satellites only 400 and 600 miles (965.6 km) out that had recently come into orbit. LaPaz at first vehemently denied that he was involved, and later denied that anything had been found (see Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer. Although he is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper Belt, Tombaugh also discovered many asteroids; he also called for serious scientific...
for details).
Zamora/Socorro Incident (1964)
In 1964 LaPaz was also involved peripherally in the investigation of the famous Socorro UFO incident, in which a SocorroSocorro, New Mexico
Socorro is a city in Socorro County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It stands in the Rio Grande Valley at an elevation of . The population was 9,051 at the 2010 census...
policeman named Lonnie Zamora
Lonnie Zamora
Lonnie Zamora was a New Mexico police officer who reported a UFO sighting while on duty on Friday, April 24, 1964, near Socorro, New Mexico....
claimed to have seen a small egg-shaped object land, saw two humanoid figures near the object, and then when he approached to within 50 feet (15.2 m), the object blasted off and rapidly disappeared. LaPaz interviewed Zamora and vouched for him as a witness.
Green fireballs revisited (1965)
LaPaz's last known comments on the green fireballs occurred in 1965 during a visit by astronomer Dr. J. Allen HynekJ. Allen Hynek
Dr. Josef Allen Hynek was a United States astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive names: Project Sign , Project Grudge , and Project Blue Book...
, a consultant to the Air Force's Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects conducted by the United States Air Force. Started in 1952, it was the second revival of such a study...
. Hynek was also investigating the Socorro incident. According to Hynek, LaPaz felt the fireballs were the most important part of the UFO phenomenon. He remained convinced that the fireballs' anomalous characteristics had never been adequately explained by the official investigation. LaPaz continued to think the green fireballs were artificial, but now believed the fireballs, and also the Socorro craft, to be highly secret projects of the U.S. government. He also accused Hynek, Project Blue Book, and others of being part of "a grand cover-up for something the government does not want discussed".
Green fireballs outside the United States
There have been reports of green fireballs outside the U.S. and long after the early days of Project Twinkle often near sensitive government or military bases: Randles and Houghe note that a Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
pilot had a near collision with three unusual green fireballs near Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England, and were also sighted near a nuclear power plant
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
in 1983 (Randles and Houghe, p. 92).
There was also a sighting of a green fireball in Cold Lake, AB, Canada in the summer of 2011, Cold lake notably has the largest air force base in all of canada and after several local protests in the 1980's cold lake no longer has nuclear weapons.
Sources
- Jerome ClarkJerome ClarkJerome Clark is an American researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note....
, Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomen, Visible Ink Press, 1993. - Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, Visible Ink Press, 1998.
- Edward J. RuppeltEdward J. RuppeltEdward J. Ruppelt was a United States Air Force officer probably best-known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of unidentified flying objects...
, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956, Chapt. 4 http://www.nicap.org/rufo/rufo-04.htm - Bruce MaccabeeBruce MaccabeeBruce Maccabee is an American optical physicist formerly employed by the U.S. Navy, and a leading ufologist.- Biography :MacCabee received a B.S. in physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass., and then at American University, Washington, DC,...
, The UFO-FBI Connection, Llewellyn Publications, 2000 - Brad SteigerBrad SteigerBrad Steiger is an American author who has written or co-written over 170 books, a number of which focus on paranormal subjects.-Childhood:...
, Project Blue Book, Ballantine Books, 1976 (Contains letter from Dr. J. Allen HynekJ. Allen HynekDr. Josef Allen Hynek was a United States astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive names: Project Sign , Project Grudge , and Project Blue Book...
of Dr. LaPaz expressing final opinion on green fireballs) - Jenny RandlesJenny RandlesJenny Randles is a British author and former director of investigations with the British UFO Research Association , serving in that role from 1982 through to 1994.-Career:Randles specializes in writing books on UFOs and paranormal phenomena...
and Peter Houghe; The Complete Book of UFOs: An Investigation into Alien Contact and Encounters; Sterling Publishing Co, Inc, 1994; ISBN 0-8069-8132-6
External links
- Transcript of 1949 Los Alamos conference on green fireballs
- Project Twinkle final report
- Links to more green fireball documents
- Project Twinkle chapter from Dr. Bruce Maccabee's UFO/FBI Connection book
- Maccabee's "White Sands Proof" essay, similar but more detailed discussion of the green fireballs and critical collected evidence omitted from Twinkle final report.
- Another article on green fireballs and Project Twinkle
- 1952 Life magazine article. Discusses UFO evidence, green fireballs, and LaPaz's sightings and findings.
- Photo of a meteor with a greenish tint in tail
- Skeptical witness of a green fireball