Green fireballs
| Green fireballs | |
| Date | December 1948 – early 1951 |
|---|---|
| Location | New Mexico (Los Alamos, Sandia Base, Albuquerque) and the U.S. Southwest |
| Type | Aerial lights / fireballs |
| Investigations | Los Alamos conference (1949); Project Twinkle (1950–51); Project Grudge |
| DisputedLikely misidentification | |
The green fireballs were bright, green, silent lights reported crossing the sky over New Mexico from December 1948, especially near Los Alamos, Sandia Base and other sensitive military sites. Witnesses included scientists, security officers and pilots.[1]
Investigation
University of New Mexico astronomer Lincoln LaPaz, an expert on meteorites, investigated and saw one himself. He argued they moved too slowly and too flat, were too silent and left no meteorites, so could not be ordinary meteors. On February 16, 1949, Los Alamos hosted a conference of scientists, including Edward Teller, which reached no consensus. The Air Force then set up Project Twinkle (1950–1951) to photograph the fireballs with instrumented cameras; it recorded nothing conclusive and was closed.[2]
PURSUE records
In 2026 PURSUE released a 116-page file listing 209 sightings near Sandia from 1948 to 1950 and the full 1949 Los Alamos conference transcript. See Green fireballs: Los Alamos and Sandia records.[1]
Assessment
Bright green bolides are a real and fairly common phenomenon (the green color comes from excited oxygen and metals such as nickel and magnesium). Most researchers think meteors explain the wave, with the concentration of reports near nuclear sites reflecting the number of trained, watchful observers there. The Air Force kept the reports secret at the time, which fed later speculation.
See also
Further reading
- Edward J. Ruppelt (1956). The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Amazon)
References
- ^ U.S. Department of War (2026). PURSUE Releases 02 and 04: DOW-UAP-D017, DOE-UAP-D004.
- ^ Ruppelt, E. J. (1956). The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, chapter on green fireballs.