Scientists sample New Mexico air for 'green fireball' dust as Air Force investigators track the sightings
July 24, 1949 · Socorro, New Mexico · Government program · Primary document linked
A Sandia Base file shows how the green fireballs were followed up. Meteorite expert Lincoln LaPaz, a volunteer consultant to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, suspected that a fireball which left no fragments might have burned to fine copper-bearing dust. After a fireball was reported over Socorro at 8:26 pm on 24 July 1949, William Crozier and Ben Seely of the New Mexico School of Mines ran an air sampler on campus the next morning and found large copper-bearing particles, then collected more samples for eight days and on a drive through the countryside. In a 25 May 1950 summary, the OSI district office wrote that it had organized reporting of the phenomena since December 1948, that the Los Alamos conferences had offered no logical explanation but concluded the phenomena existed and should be studied scientifically, and that their recurrence near sensitive installations was 'cause for concern'. The Air Materiel Command had contracted Land-Air, Inc. for a limited scientific study.
Era: Flying discs and the first inquiries · Threads: Scientific study, Nuclear and weapons sites, Intelligence and the FBI
Why it matters (3/5)
An Air Force-sponsored scientific attempt to recover physical traces of the green fireballs.
Caveats
Crozier's own tentative conclusion was that the results 'should be regarded as negative or inconclusive'; he thought the large copper particles might have come from a campus assaying building, although LaPaz noted that samples taken well away from campus on 26 July also held copper; an August collecting trip found no widespread copper dust. In a May 1950 report LaPaz raised, as one possible interpretation, that the fireballs were guided missiles launched from the Soviet Urals; the file does not show that view being adopted.
Sources
- General Correspondence Of Sandia (DOW-UAP-D017) (U.S. Department of War), primary